
Qass S F'^SS 

Book X)S 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 



Statements made hefore ike. Committee on A(/riculture and Forestry of the 
United States Senate in regard to the bill {S. 1837) to prevent the iller/al 
sale of all imitatioms of dairy products, and for other purposes. 

Washington, D. 0., April 28, 1886. 

The committee was called to order at 10.30 o'clock a. m. 

The Chairman (Senator Miller). This is a hearing granted to the 
representatives of the dairy interests of the country who, being present 
in Washington, desire to be heard now rather than to wait until the 
Senate shall receive the bill i'rom the House, if it does receive it. We 
have a stenographer here Avho will take down all that is said, and we 
hope that our frieiids will make their remarks as concise as i)ossible, 
and give us facts and data as well as they can. The president of the 
American Agricultural and Dairy Association of the United States wiil 
make a preliminary statement before calling upon the other gentlemen 
who are present to state what they have to say. 

Mr. JOSEPH H. KEALL, president of the American Agricultural 
and Dairy Association, addressed the committee as follows: 

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, we appear on behalf of the measures 
introduced by the chairman of this committee in the Senate and by Mr. 
Scott in the House. The bill in the House was referred to the Com- 
mittee ou Agriculture, and has been unanimously agreed to by that 
committee. lu behalf of tiiat measure we have this morning present 
gentlemen from New York engaged in trade, representing the dairymeu 
as well as the mercantile interest; the president of the Orange Couuty 
Milk Association of New York; tlie president of the Holstein Breeders' 
Association; delegates from New England, representing the New Eng- 
land States; five delegates from Baltimore, Md., and a number of other 
representatives of the dairy interests, who, with your kind permission, 
Mill present to the committee the grievances of the dairymen. 

I appear before you myself in behalf of the most important measure 
to the farmers ever brought before Congress, and than which no ques- 
tion of equal importance has been so unanimously favored by the mem- 
bers of the Natioual Legislature. 

The Committee ou Agriculture of the House have unanimously agreed 
upon the measure i)roposed by the American Agricultural and Dairy 
Association, placing the manufacture and sale of imitations of butter 
under the control of the United States Department of Internal Kevenne, 
imposing a license fee upon manufacturers and dealers, and taxing the 
compounds 10 cents per pouud. The bill that will be reported by the 
Hon. W. H. Hatch, chairman of that committeej meets tlie wants of tbo 
17007 OL 1 



2 IMITATION DAIllY PRODUCTS. VXS 

producer, protects the cou^uiucr, and is Dot unjust to tbe few interested 
in manufacturing artificial butter. 

Directly, and tlirougli various organizations, I have tbe great honor 
and grave responsibility to represent five million dairy farmers, whose 
lands and cows are depreciating in value day by day, and three millions 
of their brothers engaged in other branches of husbandry who sympa- 
thize with them and are indirectly affected. 

I also represent that great body of consumers in the cities and in the 
Southern States, comprising over half our entire population, who pur- 
chase their butter, and who, rich and poor alike, suffer the grossest im- 
IDOsition in this important article of food, chief among whom are the 
laborers and mechanics who can least aftbrd to be swindled in their 
purchases. 

After having brought a noble industry to the verge of destruction 
and imposed upon the consumers of butter for years, the manufacturers 
of artificial butter now raise the cry that they have long harped upon, 
for fair ti'eatment. Driven t,o the last ditch they begin to appeal for 
mercy. Seeing that the dairymen have arisen in their might, and that 
Congress is in full sympathy with their demands and anxious to afford 
them every relief and protection, these enemies of honest industry, de- 
moralizers of public morals, and robbers of the people ask for quarter. 
They offer to accept without oi)position all of our bill except the tax. 
But while thus admitting their dishonesty in the ])ast, they do not offer 
to reimburse the dairymen for their loss, nor could they do it with all 
their millions if they would. They do not propose to return to the con- 
sumers the millions of dollars out of which they have defrauded them. 
They do not suggest bringing back tolife the innocent people they have 
killed with the poisonous drugs they have used, nor restoring to health 
the thousands who now suffer from the diseases they have entailed. 

If our measure has a fault, it is in being too merciful. It is a serious 
question whether or not i)ublic ])olic3", public health, and public morals 
do not require the total extermination of imitation butter. For myself, 
I believe they do; and if my earnest advice in this direction had beeu 
followed when its manufacture began in America twelve years ago, un- 
told loss to the farme's would have been saved, and millions of dollars 
to the country. But we want to be absolutely fair, and therefore ask 
only the adoiJtion of our moderate measuie. 

It is not alone the direct loss from which the dairy farmer suffers, nor 
can the effect be measured by the profits of the nuiiuifactur'er. All 
branches of agriculture suffer through this fraud, for they each sym- 
pathize with the other in depression as well as iu j)rosperity, and the 
inilueuce is extended to all branches of commerce and industry. It has 
depressed our farming lauds and the value of our cattle. It has injured 
our foreign markets for daily i)rodncts and created a suspicion against 
all our exports. It is curtailing a healthy consumption of ibod by alarm- 
ing the consumers. It sets an'^xample of morals before our people that, 
if followed, would make every man a scoundrel, and this phase of the 
question, though least considered thus far, is the most important of all. 

The general pursuit of the practices of those who sell imitation butter 
would make us a nation of robbers entitled to the curse of God and the 
disgrace of mankind. The iniquity of the business cannot be charac- 
terized in words, nor can the train of evils following in its wake be enu- 
merated. 

If, after selling their stuff' for butter for ten years, as the manufact- 
urers admit over their own signatures, and by deception obtaining the 
price of butter ifor it, they cannot stand a tax of 10 cents per pound, 

••**•• AUG 19 1^07 

D. ofD. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 3 

"which, added to the low cost of pi-oduction, makes their stuff cost less 
than it does to produce butter, they had better convert tiieir factories 
into some respectable employment, such as soa])-omking, for which 
many of the fats they use would be more api)ropriate. 

The countiy can find use for the tax that may be realized. It can be 
used in building up our Navy, creating a coast defense, improving our 
rivers and harbors, i)romoting poi)ulaT education, establishing agricult- 
ural experiment stations in the different States and counties, extend- 
ing the benefits of the signal service to agriculture, creating and con 
ducting a department of agriculture of the national Government, and 
making a like department of labor and commerce. 

The threat is made that the law we propose will not be sustained by 
the courts on constitutional or other grounds. Give us the law ; the 
courts will sustain it. The first State laws on this subject were excepted 
to by the courts, but subsequent enactments of even stronger tenor 
were declared valid under stronger public sentiment. There is a senti- 
ment behind this measure representing the conservative farmers of 
America that would sustain any law based on right that the State or 
nation would enact. 

In conclusion, allow me to quote a little paragraph that appeared in 
yesterday's Washington Star, which says: "The elaborate legal argu- 
ments brought forward in the House against the right of Congress^ to 
defend the American people against vile food adulterations are not g(!- 
iug to be allowed to settle the question forever by any means. What- 
ever technical difficulties may be grubbed up to obstruct the operation 
of a measure founded in righteousness and common sense, the Commit- 
tees on Agriculture in both houses seem resolved to do their duly just 
the same. The Internal Revenue Bureau is lending its aid to the good 
Avork in an advisory capacity, and before long the question will be laid 
before Congress on its merits. Then we shall see how many memliei.s 
are willing to go on record as opposing the plain demand of the yieople 
for honest tiade in dairy products, and for the taxation of a noxious 
compound whi(;h, if it cannot be wi])ed out of existence altogether, can 
at least be crippled by a tax which will render its manufacture less 
profitable." 

Mr. L. I. SEAMAN next addressed the committee as follows: 
Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, since the foundation 
of the Government it has been the practice of citizens to call upon the 
governing powers for protection whenever they have felt that their in- 
dustries have been assailed, yet I do not know that I have ever read 
or heard of an industry similar to this one being assailed. 

In speaking of this subject I will first refer to the geograi)hical loca- 
tion and advantages that nature has provided the United- States with 
for producing dairy {)roducts. There is a dairy belt extending from the 
New England States on the Atlantic to the westward, confined luinci- 
pally within latitudes 41 and 44, although diverging southerly in a few 
instances as far as latitude 40. That range extends from 125 to loU 
miles in width, and is about 1,800 miles long, running to the westward, 
so far developed. We have in the United States lauds particularly 
adapted to the raising of cotton, other lands particularly ada]>ted to 
the raising of sugar, others to the raising of corn, others to the raising 
of wheat, and so I might go on and name other i)roducts to which our 
soil is adapted. But this belt of country to which I refer seeuKs to be 
particularly adai)ted, as can be proven without dispute, to the success- 
ful operatiou of dairying. 



4 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

This section of tbe country also has for its watershed the river Saint 
Lawrence, Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake 
Su])erior, and the Lake of the Woods, in Northern Minnesota. Then 
u]} in Canada a little ways there is a watershed which is a tributary to 
some of the northern sections of Minnesota and Dakota. 

Let me c&ll your attention to this section of Canada called Manitoba, 
Avhich is attracting so much interest. That has a watershed in three 
large lakes immetliately north of it that is watered the same as our 
country is l)y the lakes and rivers that I have named. The three lakes 
watering that section are Lake Winnipeg, Lake Manitoba, and Lake 
Winnebago — three large lakes. In addition to this is this section of the 
W^est which has been so largely' devoted to grain, and which has re- 
cently developed into a dairying section, which is watered by the Mis- 
sissippi, while Minnesota has the Missouri River running through the 
center of it. And let me say here, gentlemen, that in Central Minne- 
uesota, which has been producing the best wheats that we have had for 
many years, wo find there that the wheats are running out, as they did 
in the Genesee Valley some years ago, and farmers there are learning 
that those lands are as well adapted to dairying as they have been in 
past times to wheat growing. 

I will not strive to tell this committee in the short time allotted to 
me how many acres of pasture lands there are in this vast belt, or how 
many milk-cows there are grazing thereon, or how many millions of 
inhabitants are dependent upon this industry for a livelihood. Suffice 
it to say that there are many millions of people engaged in it, many 
millions of dollars invested in this industry, and that is the industry 
which is assailed by these manufactured bogus goods, in regard to 
which not only myself but a number of gentlemen here present have 
heard retailers confess that they could not sell them if they represented 
them honestly to the people who purchased them. 

This manufacture can be pi^oduced by a handful of men and hj a few 
manufacturers in as great quantities as can be produced by any of the 
largest dairying States within this Union. The production of butter is 
an adjunct to the crop of grass produced, one of the most important 
crops, as is admitted by learned men with whom I have talked, that 
there is raised, because grass i)roduces our butter, our cheese, our 
milk, our beef, and our mutton, and is the food for man's helpmate, 
the horse, and an injury to either one of these products aflects in some 
degree the whole. 

Now, a word in regard to our exports. It is a misfortune to have 
these bogus goods manufactured here, because they harass and annoy 
our trade in every sense, and particularly our export trade. It has been 
particularly annoying within the last jieriod of several years, because 
we have made great ])rogress in the manufacture of butter by manu- 
facturing it on wliat is called t he creamery plan. Everybody wlio knows 
anyl hing about it at all knows very well that the system of manufactur- 
ing it on the creamery principle has imin'oved tlie average quality of 
the product so largely that we are on the eve of building up a larger 
trade in butter than ever before known. But the tact is that instead of 
doing so we have barely held our own. The exports of butter from the 
United States amount to about $5,000,000 per annum in value. The 
exports of cheese, let me say, l\y the way, are very much larger, be- 
cause it was found that adding the oleo oil, the lard oil, either one, to 
the cheese, injures it so that it does not stand the transit across the 
ocean. Tliere is something about the hold of a vessel that injures the 
clieese, and they foiiiul that wIhju it got over there it was impaired iu 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 5 

value very <2reatly, and they Lnd to discontinue tlio adulteration of the 
cheese. But for that our cheese trade would have been injured and 
(hunaged as much as our butter trade has been. 

While we are exporting tive million dollars' worth of butter per annum, 
let ine call your particular attention to France, a smaller country, with 
less than two-thirds of the poj^ulation of this country, which exports 
nearly nine millon dollars' worth |)er annum. Also to a very uiuch 
smaller country, Denmark, which exports eight million dollars' worth 
per annum. These figures have been computed and handed to the State 
Department by the American consuls who are located abroad iu these dif- 
ferent countries. England imports about forty million dollars' worth per 
annum. Jv^ow, see what a paltry proportion of it she takes from us. Eng- 
land also exports a large i)ortion from her shores. Denmark, as I say, 
a small country, exports eight million dollars' worth of butter annuadly, 
and she looks uyon the butter business as one of the most important 
industries of the country; and I learn that those who are engaged in 
that line of trade there, in that lirie of manufacture, give as much atten- 
tion to it as it is ])ossible for them to do, mm when a ])ackageis braiuled 
"Smith "or "Alaska," or any other name which jnay be on a i)ackage 
of butter, it is meant to represent the precise quality of it, and thej^ are 
very i)articukir to ])ut precisely the same qualities of butter under these 
different brands, as each man is anxious to sustain his reputation and 
name in this connection, while in this country we hfive no control over 
the matter in any manner whatever. 

By the Chairman (Senator Miller) : 

Question. Can you give us the actual figures showing the amount of 
butter exported during the last three or four years, stating the amount 
exported each year ? — Answer. The amount was over four million dollars, 
but scarcely reaches five million dollars, and we cannot give the exact 
figures for this reason : There is no law on the statute books of the 
United States to ])rotect importers in other countries from these imita- 
tions of butter. In other words, the people here cau export goods under 
any name that they choose. The only law which could i)ossibly i)revent 
that is the law which relates to correct clearances of vessels. After a 
considerable effort some years ago I succeeded in calling the attention 
of the (xovernment to that fact, and they issued orders to the proper 
officers iu New York not to ])ermit any vessels to be cleared unless they 
had correct clearances. 

Q. Is oleomargarine exported abroad under the name of butter iu 
the clearances? — A. Yes, sir; it is. 

Q. And you cannot determine how much is butter and how much 
oleomargarine? — A. No, sir. 

By Senator Blair : 

Q. Of this $5,000,000 worth exported annually, some portion, then, 
may be oleomargarine "? — A. Yes, sir ; unquestionably a large percent- 
age of it, at least 20 per cent, of it, is oleomargarine. Allow me to say 
right here that the United States Government is em|)loying, at a vast 
expense of money, a large number of clerks to keep the statistics of ex- 
ports and iraports of the United States 

Q. What is the average co.jt of this stuff at the manufactory? — A. 
At present it is about 9| cents a pound. I was about to remark that 
the United States Government was spending a large amount of molu'y 
to give us the statistics of the exjiorts and imports, and also (he ditfer- 
ent exchanges in the principal cities are spending a givar deal of money 
for the same purpose. But there being no guard whatever upon the 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

^Yny-billill.!:l• aiul sliippirig of g-oods niider those Dames, tlio statisticians' 
iei)oits are iinvvoitlJy of credence in any form ; tbat is, so far as regards 
dairy jirodncts. 

In regard to the uuwholesomeness of these goods, I will say, withonfc 
fear of snccessfnl contradiction, that scarcely any of the families in the 
United States will knowingly bny thenij. They are largely v sed on the 
tables of hotels, lestaurauts, and boarding-houses. The ])hysicians on 
Blackwell's Island, in the harbor of N^ew York, or, rather, in Long 
Island Sound, will not permit their use in the hospitals or in the insane 
asylums. Physicians generally decline using them in their^^'^n fam- 
ilies, because, to use the terms they employ, they do not assiniilhift* with 
the system as butter does. Butter is made of little giobulesr**?if^tinct 
and separate, like living globules, while oleomargarine an<l ^butterine 
are solvent, like wax or tallow, and therefore we say they do no^ assimi- 
late with the system as butter does. Maiuifactnrers of oleomargarine 
and butterine, even of the very highest qualities, do not use it in their 
own families, and we have had them come to us and purchase for their 
individual use butter, and I have he;,rd from many others who have 
had similar orders. 

Senator Plumb. On the same principle that doctors do not take their 
own mediciue'? 

Mr. Seajian. Precisely. I do not wish to occni)y the time of the 
committee, and therefore I will not say much more. But before closing 

1 desire to make this statement. We urge the adoption of this law be- 
cause it will be of vast importance to one of the most prominent and 
important industries of the country. 1 sent to a correspondent in Iowa 
a copy of the Senate bill, and a few days ago he wrote to me saying 
that the Senate bill was an excellent one and should be passed; that 
if it was passed it would place the dairymen upon their feet again. 
Now, gentlemen, that is all we ask of you, to place the dairymen on 
their feet again. 

By Senator Plumb : 

Q. Let me ask you a question or two. You say this oleomargarine 
costs about 0^ cents a pound? — A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Do you place that value upon all the forms of these articles de- 
scribed in this bill, oleomargarine, butterine, lardine, and suinef — A. 
That depends altogether u})on how much butter the manufacturers put 
into it. When they want to present it to you, or to anybody who is 
concerned in legislation upon the subj(ict, they put in a large per- 
centage of tine butter, which acts upon it in the same way that adul- 
tei^itions of liquor do. The liquor dealer or mixer will take 5 barrels 
of gin, and a little oil of coguat;, and a little apple jack whisky, acd 
will make as many barrels of spirits as he has got, with a liquor flavor, 
and the same thing applies to butter. They can flavor these oils with 
a small percentage of butter, so as to give it a butter fl "ygr Ynn 
will find it souietimes perfectly flavorless. 

Q. But the oleomargarine without the butter costs about &^ cents a 
pound to manufacture ? — A. iSTo, sir; it is sold for that price; that is 
the wholesale price on the average. 

Q. What is the usual retail price? — A. It retails at the retail price of 
butter. 

Q. It sells for just as much as creamery butter ? — A. Yes, sir; for 
the same price as creamery butter. You can go into some of these 
stores and tind a row of tubs as long as this table, all filled with the 
same article, and they will have the price marked on one tub 18 cents, 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 7 

on another 20, on another 22, 24, 30, 40, and so on, and no matter wliich 
the enstonier buys, he, j^ets just the sanje thing'. 

Q. Do the peophi who buy it pay as much for it, knowing what it is? 
— A. No, sir; when they buy it tbey do not know what it is. 

Q. What is the trouble, then"? Is this the trouble: that it is sold for 
something that it is not? — A. Yes, sir; that is just it. It is sold for 
something that it is not. 

Q. Then if it was required to be sold as butterine or oleonmrgarine, 
or whatever it is, a compound not embracing the actual product of milk 
or cream, it would not displace the sale of butter by the retail trade ? — 
A. No, sir ; it would go down by its own weight if sold for v.'hatit is. 

Q. Are there not laws in some of the diii'erent States requiring it to 
be labeled, actually desciibing what it is? -A. There are, and that 
brings to my mind another point. In a number of our States there are 
laws upon the subject that are strict enough if they could be enforced; 
but it is like trying to enforce the operation of the law against liquor 
selling ; they cannot enforce it. These i)eople violate the law, and then 
when they are arrested and convicted they pay the line of $100 and go 
back and repeat the ofCense, and yet make money by it. 

Q. Sujjpose the ixMialty for a violation of the law was imprisonment? 
— A. If the penalty was imprisonment the law might be more easily 
enforced. But there appear to be so many milk-and-water judges on 
the bench, who seem to regard the violation of the law^ in the light that 
they do some other unimportant violations of it, that it is an exception 
when a man is fined even. But to show you the sentiment of the peo- 
ple of the United States, I believe if it was put to the vote of the 
|)eoi)le of this country, 00 per cent, of the ])eoi)le of the United States 
would say, i)ut this internal revenue tax of 10 cents a pound on it, and 
I state this ui)ou the basis of the large majority voted by the different 
houses and different legislatures of the States upon the question where 
these laws have been passed. In the State of New York, my own State, 
when a vote was taken on this subject, there were only three votes 
against it in the senate and one in the house. I wall not occupy the 
time of the committee further. 

The Cn AIRMAN. Mr. Chapin, representing the New^ England inter- 
ests, desires to be heard. 

Mr. GAEDINER B. CHAPIN, of Boston, Mass., addressed the com- 
mittee as. follows : 

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I come here as a representative before 
this committee of the farmers directly, in one sense of the word. I was 
a farmer's boy, and lived on a farm until I was twenty years of age. I 
have si)ent thirty-live years of my life with the farmers and as a com- 
misfsion merchant in the city of Boston, having direct business relations 
with the laimers themselves. We have probably on our correspondence 
books the names of five hundred farmers who, at one time or another, 
have sent us butter direct from their dairies, butter dairies, &c. I pre- 
tend to know the setiments of the farmers in regard to this question. 
Ihey say to me that unless they can be protected they cannot maintain 
themselves in this business. They say it is seldom that they ask Con- 
gress or any legislature to protect them in their products or the manner 
in which they raise or sell them ; but they say that this protection means 
life or death to them. That is especially true of the small farmers. 
Tliey say they cannot manufacture butter for 10 cents a pound, or for 
12.^ cents a pound. 1 have talked with a great mauj' of them, aiid they 
say that unless this thing is stopped their farms must grow up to bushes. 



8 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

I furthermore know it to be a fact, frooi personal observation, tliat they 
are snflering in this way, I have seen on one Utile road in New Hjunp- 
sliire the remains of nineteen houses where the houses had rotted down 
and nothing but the celhirs remained ; the peoi)le had abandoned them 
and gone away. And that is only in one part of New Hampshire. In 
tlie State of Maine there are similar instances which could be mentioned. 
Those liills up there cannot be tilled ; that is, all of tliem caiinot be, and 
there are thousands of acres fit for nothing- except ])asturage. They 
must have some ujeadow laud to raise hay to support the cows during 
the winter. They often come down to Boston and say to me, " Show 
me some butterine — show^ me some oleomargarine." I take them to the 
])lace where they retail it, and they try it and shake their heads and say, 
" r have got through ; that is enough." One gentleman told me that in 
a district where he lived in New Hampshire there were eighty schools. 
When I visited my old home last year I found they were keeiiing up a 
school there for four scholars. The farmers — the young men — had been 
driven away from home by this same depression^ and they come to the 
city and live there as long as they can and then go somewhere else. 
But they leave the New England farms because they cannot compete 
with these mauuiacturers of oleomargarine or bntterine, esjiecially when 
lard does not cost but 7 or 7J cents a pound and can be made into but- 
ter which is sold at 20 or 25 cents a pound. 

I further know, as a business man, that not one in ten of the men, wo- 
men, and children who use oleomargarine or butterine know what they are 
using. 1 have a brother who is in one of the retail markets, and has been 
there some twenty-five years, and he tells me that if a man should stand 
np and sell this stuff for what it is and tell the truth about it every time, 
his business would be killed in thirty days. And 1 know from my own 
personal observation and experience in my own business that it is almost 
iu]possiblefora man to do business in Boston and compete successfully 
with his neighbor and tell the truth about this matter. Our firm i^roba- 
bly sells 100 tubs a year; no more than that. I could sell as much as my 
neighbor if I had been brought np tx) tell that which was false. I tried the 
experiment once and sold a man a lot of it for 26 cents a pound ; a small 
lot. I .«aid to him afterwaids, "Do you knov,- what you are buying?" 
"Why," he said, "I am buying butter." I said to him, "No, sir; that 
is oleomargarine." "Well," he says, "I don't want it." I said to him, 
"Very well; if you want it for 20 cents a pound" — the value of it at 
that time — "all right." He said, "No, sir; Idon't want it at any price." 

I personally know, from what a gentleman told me within ten days, of 
a firm that is receiving 700 hundred tubs of this butterine a week from 
Chicago. All the brand there is on it is a horseshoe, with a white clover 
in the center, and the words "Good Luck Creamery." That is all the mark 
there was on it, and he said he was selling it promiscuously for butter, 
pure butter. He was selling it for 24 cents a pound. At the same time 
we were trying to get a living at selling pure butter at 30 cents a pound. 
Our customers would come along and say, "Here is this man under- 
selling you cents a pound." "Well, that is butterine," "How do 
I know ? They sell it to me as butter, as ])ure butter, and there is the 
bill." The bill read "so many tubs of butter at 24 cents a i)onnd," and 
there was no mark by which he could distinguish oleomargarine, but- 
terine, or anything else. That is the way our trade is going to-day. If 
a man makes up liis mind to be dishonest and say, " J am selling you 
that [pointing to some white i)aper] for blue paper," and make him be- 
lieve that is blue paper, you can get a living; otherwise you cannot. 
That is the standpoint 1 take as a merchant. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 9 

T also represent here to day tlie butter interest of tlie Boston Cham- 
ber of Coiunierce. We bave drawn up a petition and sent it to each of 
onr members from Massachusetts urging- the adoi)tion of this bill. It 
is siiined by seventy-two of the largest butter dealers in Boston. Some 
of these men sell this butterine and sell oleomargarine; they are com- 
pelled to do it. Whether they sell it truthfully or not, I do not know; 
I am not conversant with the fact. But, as I said before, if yon will 
put it on its own merits, or if you will pass a law whereby every man 
shall sell it for what it is, we shall be satisfied ; we will run the risk. I 
am talking now of the merchants of the city of Boston. We have no 
fear of it, if they will sell it for butterine or oleomargarine or whatever 
it is, because, as I said before, there is not one man, woman, or clsikl in 
ten but what suppose, when they buy it, they are getting pure butter. 

While I was on the train yesterday coming from iSTew York I took 
dinner in the hotel car, and I said to the porter of the car, " Can't you 
furnish me with some pure .butterf He said, "That is the best we 
have got on the train." I asked him, " Can't you buy pure butter?" 
Said he, " I think not, boss; I think not. There is so much butterine 
on the market it is almost impossible to find the genuine article." 1 
agreed with him at once. 

These merchants whom I represent — there are but two of us, Mr, 
Hibbard and myself, here to represent them — wish to give you thefacts 
just as they are, as near as we understand them, and we ask for the 
adoption of this bill just as it is, with a tax of 10 cents a pound, and 
that will only bring the actual cost up to 20 cents or a little less. 

Q, Now, some of them speak to us in regard to the constitutionality 
of this bill. They forget that you tax the farmer 

The Chairman. I do not think it is necessary for you to go into that 
niatter. Let me ask you a question : Is there any lawin Massachusetts 
resi)ecting the manufacture or sale of oleomargarine? 

Mr. Chapiin, There is in regard to the sale of it. 

Q. What is it? — A. The law compels us to brand it for what it is, 
oleomargarine or butterine. 

Q.. Is the law generally obeyed or not? — A. No, sir ; it is not. 

Q. Why not? — A. Because they take the law into their own hands, 
and it costs $15 to analyze it. Suppose I am quite cert<iin that my 
neighbor is selling butterine for pure butter. I go to an ofticer and com- 
plain of it, and he says to me, "Are you willing to go to the expense 
of ])aying for an analysis of that butter?" I say to him, "No; I don't 
feel like doing that," Hesays," It is impossible for me totellunless Ido 
analyze it; it is impossible to detect it where there is from 10 to 20 per 
cent, of lard mixed with it, and," he says, "I make some failures, con- 
siderable many, and the bill of expense is running up pretty high, and 
unless 30U are pretty certain that you know what you are talking about," 
he says, "I prefer not to molest the parties." That is one reason why 
the law is not enforced. 

Q. The execution of the law is left to the ordinary civil officers to 
prosecute, is it not? — A. Yes, sir. 

Q. In connection with information by any private individual who sees 
tit to make complaint ? — A. Yes, sir. 

Q. In oilier words, there is no special officer charged with executing 
the law, and the result is, it is not generally executed at all? — A. No, 
sir. It is left to the milk inspector to do as he sees proper. 

Q. You think these ordinary internal-revenue laws and this system 
of licenses and the other provisions contained in the bill would enable 
l)eople to determine absolutely what they are buying ? — A. I think so 



10 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Q. And that is the reason you advocate this V)ill, I suppose ? — A. Yes, 
sii". 

Q. Is there any other matter you desire to state ? — A. ISTo, sir ; I 
think of nothing-. 

Senator Blair. 1 would like to have some gentleman present give ua 
some information in regard to the alleged bad quality of this merchau- 
dise, at some time during the hearing. 

The Chairman. 1 understand there will be a chemist before the com- 
mittee who will speak upon that point. 

Mr. JAMES HUGHES, of Baltimore, Md., then addressed the com- 
mittee. 

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I appear before you today as the 
president of the Produce Exchange of Baltimore City, to urge the pas- 
sage of this bill in the interest of every one who is in favor of the sale 
of pure butter only. Before I proceed to speak upon the merits or de 
merits of the bill, 1 will state that ten years ago, in conjunction with 
some Baltimore merchants, I was successful in having a State law 
passed in Maryland, and I have listened with considerable interest to 
the questions which were proi)(>un«led to the gentleman who preceded 
me, and thiidc 1 probably may be able to clear up some of the diffi- 
culties that surround the question of a State law. 

Our Maryl.ind law was passed in 1876, and at that time we thought 
it comprehensive enough to deal with this subject. But the trouble is 
that we did TU)t at that time forecast the future success of oleomarga- 
liue. We thought it was just siin[)ly an innovation that would probably 
die out in a very short time, and we had a line attached to the violation 
of the law, but did not thitsk of having an imprisonment clause. 

Now, this bill that is before you is so comprehensive that it will take 
in everything in the nature of oleomargarine. At that time oleomar- 
garine was considered to be just simply the substance on which Mr. 
Mege received his patent in Paris, in which it was jnovided that he 
should make it of the caul of fatted beeves. No one supposed it would 
assume the hydra-headetl projjortious it has developed into within the 
last ten years. Now it is umde of everything almost. And before I 
leave this part of what I am saying, I want to state that it would be 
impossible even under the strict surveillance of the Internal Revenue 
Department for any one to detect some of the articles now made. It is 
my province as president of the Produce Exchange of Baltimore to be 
the chief prosecutor of offenders under the law of Maryland, and to 
analyze, before I put it into the hands of the officers of the law, all 
the compositions that are brought before me. Latterly there has ap- 
peared a case which has puzzled me to this extent that I cannot find 
]>roper occasion to have this man prosecuted, for the simple reason that 
the article in question is not butter and is not oleomargarine. It is some 
gelatinous compound that can be made even cheapei than oleomargarine, 
and when we ])ut it in the testing tube, instead of showing the color of 
oil or butter, it shows this opa(iue fluid, and we cannot say it is anything 
that has been ])reseuted to us before. I have heard it testified to before 
the House committee that there are two factories in Chicago which solid- 
ify substantially this oilj" matter and produce an oleomargarine which 
is sold at 7, 8, or 9 cents a ])ouud. But this cheap compound presented 
to me was the cunning product of some German, who has found out that 
he can solidify milk. He has there a gelatiue or butter, and is working 
on the old theory that a gallon or more of milk can be cou verted into 
10 or 12 pounds of butter, and he is doing that, and it is one of the most 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 11 

attractive things you have ever seen. All the lines are well defined ; 
he brings it in in ice, and it is as pretty as print butter. It is absolutely 
sweet, attractive to the i)alate and to tbe olfactories ; aiul what are we 
going to do in snch a case as that unless we have some comprehensive 
law like this to carry it out, some zealous organization like the Internal 
Eevenue Bureau ? Our State laws are incompetent to deal with this 
thing. Since I have been prosecuting in Maryland I suppose we have 
had more than tifty — yes, one hundred — people arrested for selling oleo- 
margarine. What is the outcome of it"? The fine is paid gladly and 
that is all, because they make more in a week for selling it than they 
have to i)ay in fines in two weeks. We have had persons who have 
been indicted four times within a year, and the ofiticers will not take 
hold of the matter with any spirit at all. Therefore we ask the Internal 
Eevenue Bureau to take hold of it, because we know they are a zealous 
organization, and you cannot get it under the control of the Internal 
Eevenue Bureau unless you put a tax on it. Why should they interfere 
if they gain nothing by it ? You can brand it oleomargarine, if you 
please, and they will not care ; but put a tax of 10 cents a pound on it, 
put it in the proper |>lane of competition, and let the Internal Eevenue 
officers come and collect their tax, and I guarantee there will be none 
sold, except as oleomargarine, from that time on. 

The farmers deinand the passage of this law. This interest was exist- 
ing at the time of the Christian era, and people made and sold butter 
then. It is an artificial taste I will'a'dmit. But if you throttle this 
measure you will kill one of the greatest industrial interests of this 
country. I claim here that it is the mainstay of the farmer. The man- 
ufacture of butter is his sole dependence in times of drouth when other 
cro])s fail him 5 and, furthermore, after his land has been worn out, as 
described by my friend, Mr. Seaman, of Kew York, after this natural 
dairying tract has been worn out, he has no way of recuperation what- 
ever, unless you give him the dairy to recuperate with and upon. Laud 
that is worn out for farming purposes and is useless for grain can be 
used for dairying interests; it can recuperate and be put to farm work 
again, and the farmer can get support from it. 

The claim of the oleomargarine manufacturers that they are the poor 
man's friend is false from the beginning and a delusion. They have 
held that up every time they have appeared before legislative bodies. 
They say, "We appear for the poor man. We want to make butter 
cheaper. The laboring men want cheap butter, and we are their friends." 
What is the fact in the case? I defy any living man to say that he 
ever saw a housewife or a man or child go to the market-house or store 
and ask for a i)ound of oleomargarine. I never did, and I defy any 
man to say that he ever did. But what are the facts? The facts are 
that tons of it are being sold daily in our city, tons and tons are being 
sold, and when we have these men arrested— which we can seldom do, 
because, as a gentleman has stated to you, we have all sorts of difficul- 
ties thrown around us — they say, "Are you willing to swear to this 
and that? Are you willing to conduct the prosecution?" And wheu 
we go to the State's attorney and ask him to come down to the station- 
house with us he says, " It is not my business ; I am not paid to go to 
the statiou-hou e. Make your charge and have it sent before the jury 
as best you can." State laws are powerless to deal with this subject. 
It has to be a national law, otherwise we are left to the mercy of these 
people, who are seeking to destroy the dairy interest for their benefit. 

The fact has been i)resented to me since I came here that nineteen 
creameries located on one short road in Iowa have had to suspend be- 
cause of this unhealtby and illegal competition. 



12 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

These s'entlemen liave only touclicd upon the violations of the law iu 
their discussion of the subject. That is really one of the gravest con- 
sitlerations for you, Senators, to consider in this matter. Take themau 
in Baltimore or elsewhere who has a dread of the law, of the fine and 
imprisonment — because we have a s])le)idid law in the State as far as it 
goes. That man will not lay liimself personally liable at all. He goes 
out and hires little boys and little children and girls, if necessary, and 
]>laces them on the outskirts of the markets and the outskirts of the 
city with baskets "f this print oleomargarine, and when they are arrested, 
they do not know who put them there. How can they inform upon 
anybody ? But if they are not arrested, along comes the employer, and 
says to them, " How mucb did you sell; what amount"?" And he takes 
the proceeds of what they have been selling of " this pure country but- 
ter which my mother made out in the country where we keep nothing 
but Alderney cows," and they are as rural and innocent in their ap- 
pearance as anybody could hope for. That is the unpleasant feature of 
the thing; they do not do it honestly at all. 

Another thing that we fear, if this thing i* not taken hold of by the 
strong arm of the National Government: we fear there will be a total 
discontinuance of the use of butter, I admit it is an artificial taste, as 
I said before, but peojde who have been fooled time and again do not 
want to place themselves iu that position so many times, and so they 
say they cannot get any butter, there is no use to send to the markets 
or stores for it, and they conchide they will discontinue the use of it. 
What are the facts in relation to that ? They are, as I can point out, 
that many of my acquaintances have no butter on their table; they 
have ceased using butter, and every pound that is taken away iu that 
form is that much of a blow at this great agricultural interest, and there 
is no interest iu this (country that can apj)roach it in niagnitude. You 
may take the combined sales of the dairy and its correlative the poul- 
try yard, and everything that belongs to it, and you will find it amounts 
to more in value than the wheat crop, more than the corn crop, or more 
than is received from the sale of our pork or almost any product you 
choose to mention. Cotton is no longer king when compared with the 
results obtained from the dairy, and that is a fact which cannot be con- 
troverted. 

When this matter of oleomargarine was first presented to us we 
thought we would let it go, and see if we could not starve it out by 
making good butter. But they do not allow us to accumitlate enough 
good butter for the simple reascm that these men are very shrewd, and 
where they appear at the points of production they put up the price of 
the tine butter upon us andtake th ebulk of our tine product and do not 
let us have that at all. What is the consequence? The consequence 
is that they not only put up the price of this creamery butter, but buy 
this fine creamery butler to use in their compounds, and that makes it 
so scarce that we are forced to ask a fictitious value for it, and poor peo- 
l)le and everybody else are driven from the consumption of creamery 
butter, and are compelled to buy oleomargarine, which is presented to 
them iu an attractive form and which they say is " good enough for us." 

I do not wish to occui)y your attention any longer. I could talk on 
the subject for two hours, but it would simply crowd out other people 
who wish to speak. 1 thank you for your attention as far as 1 have 
gone, and hope I have touched on some salient points of interest to 
you in the consideration of this bill; and I urge upon you the import- 
ance of this matter, and hope and pray that these gentlemen who are to 
address you will show the necessity of the action that is sought. There 



IMITATION DAIRY PKODUCTS. 13 

IS oue tbing which 1 thiuk iis iu poiut, however, which 1 will speak of 
before closing, and that is that if you will tax auy compound that seeks 
to imitate butter, it will give us all that we require, aud will put the sale 
of oleomargarine ui)on a proper plane of competition. We do not ask to 
shut it out entirely, but we ask that you will place such a tax upon it 
that it will be brought in proper competition with butter — that is, a tax 
of 10 cents a pound. With such a tax upon it, we will try to make 
creamery butter all over the laud; and if you will give us that advan- 
tage, we will make butter and compete with them on that level. But 
we cannot get along in that eifort without the tax. The balance of the 
bill is good in every particular, but the tax is absolutely necessary; it 
is essential to the prosperity of this great industry. I thank you for 
your kind attention. 

VICTOR E. PIULLET, representing the State Grange of Pennsyl- 
vania, then addressed the committee. 

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I hardly know where to begin, or how 
to introduce the brief remarks that I sup])ose I ought to make belbre 
this committee. 1 am here with the worthy master of our Stale Grange 
organization to represent the iarmers of Pennsylvania. Perhaps it 
would be projjer to state that we have within a fraction of 800 town- 
ship organizations — subordinate granges, we call them — and some 40 
county granges, and a State Grange, the membership of which is ^com- 
posed of the subordinate granges. We number about 40,000 members 
in our State, and the whole purpose of the organization is to take care 
of agricultural interests. 

We are very anxious, indeed it is a matter of importance to the whole 
country, that this counterfeit butter be exterjuiiuited and driven out. 
There is no room for diiference of sentiment in our State upon this 
question. We have a law in Pennsylvania, that has been ])ronounced 
constitutional, that prohibits the manufacture or sale of these articles ; 
but we labor under this difficulty: When we made our c<uistitution iu 
1874 we prohibited the legislature from a]>pointing any commissioners. 
We have been "counnissioned " in all directions until we have not 
enough money to pa^' for the numerous commissions authorized, and 
we interdicted them. Therefore we have no process of executing this 
law except the ordinary one through our constabulary and distiict 
courts. But the proper source of this power, as we think, is the is^a- 
tioual Legislature. 

1 presume that the statistics in regard to this subject have been re- 
counted to you, and I need not go through with them. The extent of 
the dairy interest of Pennsylvania is second to that of Xew York only, 
and is one of the most important industries. We are forced to go into 
market and sell our product in com[)etitiou with these hog and mule 
dairies that have been established in our princi]>al centers of i)oi)ula- 
tion, aiid it is an unfair contest. I am not one of thoce who advocate 
the establishing of the creamery system for the making of butter. The 
best butter that was ever made is to be found in the cellar of the farmer. 
We 'have now one very important improvement, and that is sub- 
merging the milk at a temperature of 38 to 40 degrees, which gives 
us all the cream within twelve hours, and gives us the sweet milk by 
which we can raise the offspring of our cows. And 1 want to say to 
you gentlemen just here that there is one very important reason for 
the interdiction of the counterfeit butter, or for ph^cing it in such a posi- 
tion that the couimuuity shall know it under all circumstances, and 
those who make it shall be under the same surveillauce that nyc are wheu 



14 IMITATION DAIKY PRODUCTS. 

we distill onr fruits or grains or dispose of our- tobacco. %ff'lK' ^reat point 
is this : if this is not arrested, the fear is that (here will be a- wholesale 
adulteration of butter all over the country. 1 myself dairy on three 
farms; have al)out seventy-hve cows. 1 rear all the ottspring- on the 
milk mixed with a little oil cake meal, which is about as .i^ood as whole 
milk. There is nothin,!'- to prevent me from standin.y this inqiorted 
grease from Italy er this deodorized grease from Chicago in my cellar, 
and adding from 15 to 30 per cent, to it as we churn ; there is nothing 
to i)revent it, and even if I did that I would make a great deal better 
product than those who put in 10 per cent. If this is allowed, wont it 
drive the whole dairy community into the adulteration of a i)roduct 
■which is of great imi)ortance to this country as one of its exports? 
Shall we be able to hold the business where it used to be before these 
counterfeits were made? 

The Chairman. I understand that the oleo is produced in Chicago 
and elsewhere, and sent out in barrels to farmers? 

Mr. PiOLLET. Yes, sir; certainly. I can put a cask in my cellar and 
use 30 to 40 i)er cent, ot it. I have resisted that, and no man who makes 
butter on his farm but what is i)roud of it. I care more for my butter 
than for most anything else. We are scru])ulous in having everything 
neat and clean and in subsisting our cows upon the very best material. 
The ])ortions of Pennsylvania in which I live borders on the State of 
New York, and it is a well-known f.ct that the whole tier of counties 
on either side is capable of producing the very best butter. We have 
water and grass that make extra butter and we get extra prices for it. 
But we are injured by this counterfeiting of our ])roduct, and, gentle 
men, we are simple enough to think that we have just the same right to 
have our products protected by the Government that men have who are 
handling thii currency of the country or the coin of the country. Why 
should not Congress institut<^ laws to punish a man who counterfeits 
butter as eflectually as you would punish a man who counterfeits money! 
Any one who has ]>aid any attention to that subject is certainly aware 
of one fact, that there is no compound of which this bogus butter is 
made that does not show in its process that it contains ingredients which 
are injurious to ])ublic health, and so persistent is the effort now made 
all over the country to adulterate human food that there must be some 
stop i)ut to it. 

The manuracturer is protected in his trademark, the banker in his 
money, and the Government sends out its constabulary, its whole police 
force, to ferret out the man who is counterfeiting money, and, when dis- 
covered, it destroys all his processes. Now that is just what the Go\ - 
ernment ought to do in regard to these fellows who are making butter out 
of hog grease and mule grease; who are making it out of dead sub- 
stances throughout the country, putrefying substauces even, that they 
can deodoiize and palm ofl' as butter. 

I come here before you at the instance of our farmers all over the 
State. The gentleman who is with me and myself left home yesterday 
at 3 o'clock, and we are here in the hope that we may be able to say a 
few words that may intlneuce the action of our national legislature. 
AVe want this compound taxed. You tax our rye $1.80 n bushel; that 
is, 1 believe the tax on alcohol is $1.80 a gallon, and a bushel of rye 
will make a gallon of alcohol certainly. Our tobacco is also heavily 
tax*^d, and I think that this i)r()duct ought to be heavily taxed as well. 
1 think it should be taxed Id cents a jtonnd, and ihe whole execution of 
this law should be i)la(;ed under the same nnichinery that you have in- 
Btituted to protect the revenues of the country, and iu that way it will 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 15 

not add aiiytbiug to tlie oxpeuse of the Goverument, but will be of great 
service to the publie. Certainly it will lielp the dairy interest. Our 
exports, as you Icnow, have fallen ofl' very greatly because of the man- 
ufacture of these fraudulent substances and imitations of butter. 

By Senator Blair : 

Q. Is oicoiiiari::!riiie and tliese other articles of a similar character 
inauufaetured to any extert abroad? — A, They have for many years in 
those thickly-settled countries been using substitutes for butter, as near 
as I can learn. 

Q. What has been the effect in regard to public health; has there 
beeu any actual demonstration of its effect! It seems to me that much 
depends on the i)rimary question of whether it is detrimental to the 
public healtli. — A. From all I can learn about the matter in foreign 
countries, I understand they are taking steps to suppress it, and to 
prevent and discourage its manufacture. I do not think that on the 
other side of the water, however, they care very much about the health 
of the people. 

Senator Blatr. I do not care so much abont their health over there, 
but I wanted to get at the effect of it upon our health over here. 

The Chairman. I do not know that this gentleman wishes to speak 
on til at part of the question. 

Senator Blair. He seemed very intelligent in regard to these mat- 
ters, and I thought he would know^ 

Mr. PioLLET. 1 can answer you as far as I know, but it would only 
be my own view of the case. 

Senator Blair. I asked you the question because I thought you 
seemed to know about it, and 1 supposed >ou had some knowledge 
whether this oleomargarine, or tliese varions compounds, contained in- 
gredients which are recognized as actually deleterious in use. 

Mr. PiOLLET. They do, and analysis shows it, and they are becoming 
numerous. The sul[)huric acid that is used now in the making of glu- 
cose, according to my observation, has produced all these kidney dis- 
eases that are becoming so prevalent. I am an old man now, but when 
I was a young man such diseases were hardly known in all the region 
of country where I live, or in my State for 300 miles up and down the 
Susquehanna Eiver. 1 was intimately acquainted with the people, and 
such a thing as diabetes and these kidney complaints was raix^ indeed, 
and now they are very common, and I attribute it to the use of sulphuric 
acid in our sweets, and I think that these coiupounds used in the place 
of butter are equally injurious. I did not come here with a prepared 
analysis, but that will be presented to you in proper form, so that you 
will see what it is composed of and how they make it, and you will be 
shown, as a matter of course, that it is injurious to the public health. 

The Chairman. We nnderstand that yon intend to produce testi- 
mony of that kind before us, but that you yourself appear only as a 
dairyman. 

]\Ir. I*ioLLKT. Yes; I appear as a practical dairyman to represent the 
farmers of our State, and I want to say to you that they feel they have 
the same right to be protected by the National Government that any 
other class of people engaged in any other business have. The busi- 
ness of banking is a very extensive business in this country, but its 
magnitude and Ciipital is not equal to that employed in our vocation of 
dairying, ssot only that, but this lU'otectiou will assist in increasing 
the exportation of our products. Our exjiort i)roducts, as you know, are 
chiefly agricultuia]. Last year 79 i)erce!.it, of them were agricultural 



16 IMITATION DAIRY PEODUCTS. 

products, and we feel that we have a right to receive some attention at 
your hands. 

It is true that we are not represented as a chiss in Congress, but 
we are making some attempt in that direction and think we shall have 
men wlio who will represent us in the future, and we shall be organ- 
ized hereafter in such a way that we shall be heard in ])erson, if we can- 
not be through attorneys. We feel that Congress ought to step in and 
])rotect us against this counterfeit imitation of our product that is as iu- 
juiious to us as the counterfeiting of coin or bank bills is to the banker. 
We feel that we have the same right to protection that he has, and that 
the aegis of the law should step in and protect our industry- as it does 
his. 

Senator Blair. I see you have been misled by my question. What 
you say is very true, it seems to me, but there is another question upon 
which I desire information, and that is as to whether oleomargarine or 
these other compounds are hurtful and detrimental to the jniblic 
health. If so, not only should this manufacture be taxed and regnlated, 
but it should be absolutely prohibited in the same way you would de- 
stroy the manufacturing of counterfeit money ; that was the only point. 
I wish to guard you against misunderstanding. I think I know as much 
about farming as almost anybody of my age. I have done as much hard 
work on a farm up to the time when I left it as any one, and 1 know 
what these gentleuien say about the condition of farms in New Hamp- 
shire is true. I ride by those desolate places every year of my life, and 
I have seen in some cases where the buildings have rotted and gone to 
waste by reason of the competition in this industry, which has grown 
up under these circumstances which have been detailed here. J also 
know that the best butter I have ever seen in my life was made on these 
New Hampshire hills, and that the industry has very largely disap- 
peared. 

Mr. PiOLLET. I do not admit your last statement about the quality 
of butter. I think you have to come to my place to get the best butter. 

Senator Blair. No; the very best butter was made at Campton, N. H., 
where I was born. 

Mr. PiOLLBT. We all know that a better quality of butter is made in 
Pennsylvania thap in any other part of the United States. 

Senator Blair, You may sncceed in competition with us in some other 
articles, but your butter does not comjiare with ours. 

Mr. PiOLLET. I do not know that I have anything more to say to the 
committee, except that I want to impress you with the idea that we have 
discussed in our subordinate granges. I do not know whether the com- 
mittee understands the purposes and objects of these granges, but they 
are organizations composed entirely of men engaged in agricultural pur- 
suits. 

The Chairman. You need not spend any time upon that point ; I 
think the committee understands it. I will not go into a dissertation 
upon what I know about farming at ])resent, but will leave that for 
paivate conversation. 

Mr. PiOLLET. In our weekly meetings we have talked this thing all 
over, and we think it is not unreasonable that we should ask the 
national legislature to give us some protection similar to that given to 
those engaged in banking and other pursnits. You all very well know 
that if you protected the maiuifacture of counterfeit money that it 
would be very apt to get into circulation, and therefore the most strin- 
gent means are taken to prevent its manufacture. And although we 
would be aatisljed uow with a 10 per ceut. tax upou it, yet we thiuk 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 17 

tbat in other respects the Government sbould control its manufacture 
and sale. When I am traveling- about I do not eat any of tbe butter 1 
find at tbese hotels because these compounds are so largely sold every- 
where that there are hardly any of these creameries but what get more 
or less of this stuft'in them. The pure butter is to be found on the 
farms, and it is made by our wives and daughters, and they want to be 
protected, and it is that class of our people who should make the butter 
of the country. 

Beyond this, I do not know that I have anything to say. I have 
gone into this matter of the analyses that have been made of the mate- 
rial used in suine and oleomargarine and these butter substitutes, but I 
will not detain you by relating them. I simply come here rejjresenting 
forty thousand farmers from my State,who have talked this thing all over, 
and who feel that at the hands of the national Government tliey have 
the right to ask protection to the same extent that any other class of 
l)eople are i^rotected by the laws of our country. 

Mr. W. H. DUCKWORTH, of New York, then addressed the com- 
mittee. 

1 do not want to frighten you, gentlemen, by exhibiting the papers I 
have in my hand, but I hastily got together some of the facts relating 
to this subject, and jierhaps I can answer some of the questions that 
members of the committee have asked. 

I have noticed that at almost all tbese assefublages or meetings it 
seems to be a great point \vith parties representing the dairy interest to 
state that they represent the farming community. Now, I am a com- 
mission merchant of the city of- New York, but I can also claim to be a 
farmer, inasmuch as I have a little place in Iowa, where I have a dairy 
of about 150 cattle, only 25 of which are milch cows. But in regard to 
this question of the manufacture of oleomargarine it is unnecessary to 
go into the history of it more than to say that when it was first intro- 
duced it was supposed to be made from the caul of fat beeves. To-day 
it is made of hog oil or lard rendered at a temperature of 110. degrees, 
mixed with vegetable oils, such as cotton-seed oil, sesame oil, and a 
friend of mine made the assertion once, or rather inferred that horse oil 
had been used, and there is more truth than poetry in that, although 
there is one link missing to carry it right straight out so that we can ab- 
solutely prove it. 

In speaking of the operations of his department recently State Dairy 
Commissioner Brown, of New York, said: 

The venders aud dealers in bogus butter have deliberately and persistently repre- 
sented in every possible way that there is now no law in our State to prevent the 
open manufacture and sale of these adulterated goods in face of the fact set forth in 
the opinion of the court of appeals in the Marx case that there are several unrepealed 
statutes relating to this subject, besides our i^resent law, which the conrt more than 
intimates is operative and constitutional. 

That decision in the Marx case repealed one section in our law^ and a 
few words in another section, and there was a great deal of money sjient 
by the oleomargarine men in sending pani])hlets out, claiming that the 
law had been entirely repealed in the State of New York. 

In Ohio there is a strong move made to protect the dairymen there 
against fraud, and they claim there, as they say in tlieir adtlress: 

Oleoujargarine, butterine, suine, and other com))Ound,s fraudulently sold nnder the 
name of l)utt(^r, have made an investment in land and cattli^ <>( over |'200, 000,000 de- 
voted to dairy jinrposes aud an annual i)ro{Uiction of $')CiO, 000,000 per yenr almost 
valueless, not by honest comjielition, ))ut by deception of the most criminal kind, 
while the cunsuiner has been swiutlled correspondingly, 

17007 OL- 2 



18 IMITATION DAIRY TRODUCTS. 

Tbe Chairman, Allow me to suggest that as our time lias nearly ex- 
])ired, if you will tell us briefly, as representiugtlie trade of New York, 
liow this nffects the i)roilnce trade iu New York, or anything in regard 
to the export trade, we .shall be glad to hear it. 

Mr. Duckworth. One of the committee asked a question in regard 
to the subject of the effect of these compounds ui)on the public health. 
1 can read an extract upon that subject which will answer that point 

The Chairman. Y^ou need not go into that at this time. I under- 
stand Mr. Eeall will ])roduce a chemist and other people who can speak 
upon tbat subject, and as we are limited for time, if you will speak of 
the effect of the sale of these articles upon the produce trade of New 
York, we shall be glad to hear you. Please confine yourself to that 
subject at ])reseDt. 

Mr. Duckworth. On that point 1 will state that by the reported ex- 
]!orts from tlie year 1880 to the year 1885, according to the figures which 
1 have in detail here, it is shown that the export of butter has decreased 
18.0(19, 1!7() pounds, and oleo has increased over 17,(tO(),(]00 pounds. 

Now^ in regard to the receipts in the city of New York, the great loss 
may be api^roximately shown by the following reports of receipts and 
value of butter at the city of New York during the years ending No- 
vember 30, 1882, 1883, 1884, and 1885, The total receipts in the year 
1882 were 70,864,840 jwunds, at an estimated value of over $23,000^000. 
In 1883 the total receipts were over 90,000,000 pounds, Viilued at 
$22,027,579.00. In 1884 tbe total receipts were over 88,000,000 i)ounds, 
valued at $20,342,000. In 1885 the total receipts were 93,566,850 
])Oun(ls, valued at $19,502,977, 

These figures show that while iu 1885 the receipts were 13,702,010 
pounds in excess of J 882, yet the market value was $3,522,313.05 less. 
Taking the receipts of 1885 at 93,.566,850 pounds at the same value as 
iu 1882, we have $26,793,723,25, and deduct the value of the product of 
1882, amounting to $23,025,295.05, and it will show the ditierence in 
compared value of $3,708,428.20, or a loss to the whole United States of 
over $40,000,000 })er annum. Or, taking the receipts of 18S5 at the 
average price of 1882, it amounts to $26,793,723.25, and deducting 
amount actually received, which is $19,502,977, it leaves a balance of 
$7,290,746.25, or one-tenth of the whole United States, and the differ- 
ence shows a loss to the United States alone in butter of over $70,000,000. 

I want to say in regard to this niatter of jmblic health that it is a 
thing that cannot be proved as to whether it is healthy or unhealthy by 
chemistry. That is a physiological question. If I had time 1 could read 
from some authorities upou this subject. 

The Chairman. We shall have to ask gentlemen to confine them- 
selves to one particular branch of this subject. I understand tbat Mr. 
lieall will produce some testimony upon tbat subject at another time. 

Mr. Duckworth. Very well ; 1 will not trespass further upou the 
time of the committee. 

Mr, JAMES H, SEYMOUR, of New York, then addressed the com- 
mittee : 

Gentlemen of the committee, I was informed yesterday by a merchant 
of our city that the honorable cbairmau of this committee said to him 
over three years ago that the oidy way to regulate this bogus-butter 
<piestion iu the United States would be to put it under tbe internal-reve- 
nue de])artnu^nt and i)lace a tax upon it. I was very much pleased to 
know tbat, and I think he has repeated it several times. I presume, 



IMITATION DAIEY PRODUCTS. 19 

Mr. Chairman, that you wish me to speak upon this subject from the 
commercial standpoint. 

TheCHAiBMAN. I'es. 

Mr. Seymour. I hold in my hand an editorial from one of the leading 
journals of the city of New York. It is headed " It lives by fraud 
alone." I also hold in my hand a little pamphlet issued by the bogus- 
butter trade of New York City, which reads thus: "The truth. Eead 
it. A large proportion of the citizens of New York and vicinity have 
been using for years past oleomargerine and butterine as butter. At a 
safe calculation there has been consumed in this vicinity at least seven- 
ty-tive million pounds, or a fifty-pound tub to every man, woman, and 
child. This is a terrible figure." 

. This, gentleman, is from their side of the question. That has gone 
to the consumer as the genuine product. New York has been the most 
active State in this matter, and the first State to enact a law to regulate 
the sale of this product and so brand it, and in the early years, at the 
inception of the manufacture of oleomargerine, it was f'airlj' obeyed, I 
think, for one or two years. Later on, when the butterine interest 
sprung up in Chicago, since the branding law was passed, so that there 
might be no deception perpetrated upon the peo})le, the law has been a 
dead letter from that day to this. And I say it without hesitation, that 
no class of men in the United States have done so much to demoralize 
the integrity of the merchants as those men dealing in this bogus prod- 
uct. They have used every eftbrt from the beginning, from the manu- 
facture of it through to the consumer, to put it upon the basis of pure 
butter and no other. And when they make the claim, which they will 
make before this committee, that they do not deceive, that they sell it 
for Avhat it is, they are as false as false can be, for they cannot truth- 
fully say they are not guilty of any deception. 

But, genfcleinen, we are here to ask you to place this on a basis so 
that fraud and deception can be taken out of the business. We are 
here to ask you to place it on such a basis that, if it is a competitor, it 
may be an honest competitor with the dairymen. Ten cents a pound 
(as the argument will be used before-you) will not take it away from the 
poor man. If a tax often cents a pound is put upon it, they can give 
it to the poor man, if he wishes to buy it for what it is. and it will not 
be out of 'his reach. I have been told by men who sell it that they dis- 
pose of it to the retailer from 18 to 20 cents a pound, and the retailer 
sells it from 35 to 45 cents a pound to the consumer. We ask, gentle- 
men, that this be i)laced upon a business basis. As to the question of 
its healthfulness, that you will inquire into. We are not here to talk 
on that point, as we are not chemists. AA^e talk from a commercial 
standpoint entirely. There has been no business carried on in this 
country more demoralizing. It has demoralized the farmer and it 
has demoralized the merchant. It is encouraging more fraud and 
more deception than any other one article in the United States, and 
they know it. The farmer can meet competition at any time, and 
so can the merchant. It is not competition that we are asking 
legislation to protect us from, but we are asking to be protected 
from fraud and deception,, and we have a right to call upon the 
national legislatu'e to protect us in this interest. If we are not pro- 
tected aj^aiust this fraud the honest dairymen will be driven out of the 
business, and the merchant also, if he is disposed to be honest, will be 
driven out. He has got to become dishonest, the same as those who 
are engaged in that business, if he expects to remain in it. So we have 
brought it to the national legislature, and we say to you to-day, gentle- 



20 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

men, yhall we b0 honest or shall we be dishonest in order to prosper in 
business'? 

Mr. Chairman, there is a package of resolutions here, passed by the 
Retail Grocers' Association of New" York, which 1 will leave with you, 
in which they state what they think of these goods from exjjerience in 
trying to sell them for what they are, with the whole fraud standing at 
the consumer's door. I thank you, gentleujcn, for your kind attention, 
and the time you have given me, and trust that this bill will pass, and 
that the tax will not be less than ten cents a pound, for the reason that 
that will not destroy the product if it has any merit. 

Mr. B. F. Van VALKENBURGH, assistant dairy commissioner of 
New York, said : 

Gentlemen of the committee, I desire to speak upon one point in re- 
gard to this matter which has not been touched upon, I think, and that 
is that it is an absolute necessity that we have a Uuited States law con- 
trolling the manufacture and sale of these goods in order that we may 
effectually enforce our State laws. The idea seems to be carried here 
that if we get this national law to tax these goods that is going to ac- 
complish all that is needed. That idea is a fallacy. The national law 
only proposed to bring these goods under a stamp tax or some other 
system. Now, then, there is nothing in that law to prevent the grocer 
from selling those goods for butter. At that point the State law must 
come in to protect the citizen agaiust fraud. But as the matter now 
stands it is utterly impossible to enforce the State law thoroughly, 
for the reason that these goods are manufactured in all the different 
cities of the Uuited States. Therefore any butter tubs that are branded 
creamery butter and shipped and way-billed on the railroad as but- 
ter are delivered at the ditierent points as butter. The wholesale mer- 
chant takes them in his store, and no man can tell, except by actual 
inspection, which would require a large corps of officers, what they 
are. The wholesale groce!" turns them over to the retailer, and up to 
the time they reach the retail grocer there is no mark or brand on those 
goods to show that they are not butter. The consequence is, that to 
enforce the law of the State of New York effectually it would require 
at least a thousand detectives to be employed the whole time. But if 
these goods are put under United States supervision, under a law that 
stamps the goods, the grocer must take out a license before he can 
sell them, and there is no fear that the grocer will sell them without a 
license, for they know what the Internal-Revenue Bureau is, and they 
will not take that risk. Ccnsequeutly the State ofhcers, in enforciug the 
State law, have only got to go to the United States bureau and get a 
list of the merchants who have taken out a license to retail these goods, 
and those men who take out that license have to put up a sign, and I 
Avill wager that they will put up the small sign required in their store, 
and will sell mOre goods with the sign than they are selling of oleomar- 
garine now. I know that to be the iact, for 1 have been prosecuting the 
law in Ntfw York State for nearly two years. I have made something 
over three hundred arrests, and we have convicted something near one 
hundred persons for selling these goods. What do they do ? They turn 
right around to me in the court and say, " Well, that is all right — with 
an oath — I can pay that $100 and make it before Saturday night. Go 
ahead ; I can make it as fast as you can g( t it out of me." On that point, 
the question w^as asked a mouient ago~ if the penalty was adequate. 
The penalty of $100 is too large to successfully prosecute these men. 
The courts look ui)ou the offense of selling 10 cents' worth of oleom^r- 



IMITATION DAIEY PRODUCTS. 21 

garine as bnttcras a small iiiisdomeaiior, and it is \(n\y difficult to get 
juries and courts to convict wlien the penalty is $100. Tbat is the great 
trouble we have had in New York State ; our penalties are too large. If our 
l)enalty was $50 instead of -$100 we should convict nearly every man we 
l)rosecute, while now we convict only about two out of three. 

The main difficulty is to get a. law that is effective in such a manner 
that we may know who deals in the goods. Then (here will be no great 
trouble in following the goods to the consumer. The State dete(?tive 
must begin at that point and track the consumer. There are i)robably 
100,000,0(10 i)ounds of these goods consumed here in the United States, 
and in my experience in prosecuting (he law I have not found the first 
])eison who ever used it in his family as an article of food knowingly, 
excei)t it be the boarding-house keeper, a restaurant keeper, or a hotel 
kee[)er. There are any number of ])eople willing to buy it to feed to 
o(hers, but they will not buy it knowingly for themselves to eat. They 
are afraid of it, and they have reason to be. 

This tax of 10 een(s a pound set upon it will gradually bring these 
goods u]) in pri(!e, so (hat (he grocer will pay fur them about the same 
money (hat he has (o pay lor butter that will retail at the same price, 
and it will not cost (he consumer aijy more for the goods under a 10- 
cent tax than it does now. 

Our samples of oleomargarine which have been purchased in the last 
two years, amounting to five or six hundred samples, have averaged as 
high a juice as the average price of butter that it retails for. The 
grocer has that incentive of buying these goods at from 9 to 13 cents 
a i)Ound during this past winter, and retailing them at from 25 to 35 
cen(s a pound. He is making a larger iiercentage on the goods than 
any shover of counterieit money makes. The third party who '' shoves 
the queer" does not make 50 per cent., which is what the grocer makes. 
This tax will take away this incentive from the grocer to commit this 
fraud. He is a middle man who commits the fraud, and the basis on 
which these goods are made is this, that in value, compared to the 
value of butter, it is the same as the value of the metal used by the 
counterfeiter compared with silver, except the difference is greater. 
And yet it will retail as high as good butter. 

The Chaikman. If it were sold for what it is, and if everybody knew 
what it was, would the grocer not be compelled to sell it at about what 
it cost, with a fair profit added to it? 

Mr. Van Valkenbuegh, My candid opinion is that if sold for what 
it is in every case there would not be one pound sold where there is 
now one thousand pounds sold. At a penny a pound oleomargarine 
would not sell to the American i^eople as an article of food ; they will 
not have it knowingly. But it would sell to the boardiug-house keeper 
to feed her boarders, and to the restaurant keeper for his customers, 
and to the hotel keeper ; but those are the only persons where it would 
sell for what it is, and they are the only places that it ever has sold for 
what it is. I have, for the past two years, offered from $50 to $100 to 
the oleomargarine men if they would produce one citizen who was using 
it in his family as an arlicle of food, if that person was not interested 
directly or indirectly in the manufacture of oleomargarine, and they 
have never produced a man yet. 

Senator Blaik. If you do not demonstrate that it is an evil thing of 
itself, so that its prohibition can be made legal, will not this vast army 
of boarding-house keepers and hotel-keei)ers and that kind of ])atronage 
still be liable to be imposed upon! I see butter ui)on the table in a 
hotel, but these provisions in regard to the marking of the butter pack 



22 IMITATION DAlilY PRODtTCTi?. 

age do not help me out. You will harilly be able to persuade the Ameri- 
can people that they can tax a healthy food, but if you demonstrate that 
it is hurtful you may prohibit it. 

Mr. Van Valkenburgh. I do not think in order to tax it that it is 
necessary to demonstrate the fact whether it is unwholesome or not. 
But we have spent a great deal of money in New York State investi- 
gating that question. By chemistry you cannot prove it to be unhealth- 
ful. ]f you take the blood from a small-pox patient, a chemist may 
<lecide that it is not unhealthy, and yet if it is put in the veins of a 
liealthy man, that man will have the suuxll-pox. Physiologically you can 
]»r()ve it to be unhealthy, but by chemistry you cannot. 

Coujuiissioner Brown (and other chemists and physicians as well) has 
spent a good deal of money and time investigating this subject during 
a few past years, and he claims in his annual report, which is notimnted 
yet, to have thoroughly and fully established the fact that i)hysiologi- 
cally it is unwholesome. But by chemistry we cannot establish that 
fact by any known process we have discovered. That report of Com- 
missioner Brown is indorsed by many eminent physicians of the State 
of New York, although it is not in print yet, and consequently it is not 
where it can be referred to. But he makes that claim. 

The Chairman. How soon is that report likely to be printed ? 

Mr. Van Valkenburgh. Very soon. I cannot say how soon. 

Senator Blair. This matter of demonstrating the fact chemically 
<loes not strike me as of importance, but to demonstrate it physiologi- 
cally, I think, is important. 

Mr. Van Vakkenburgh. I want to ask you this : It is a provable 
fact that the animal fats or oils they use cannot be made into oleomar- 
garine and make an article which will sell successfully unless they are 
lse])t in their raw state — I mean absolutelj" raw — from the animal. Now, 
is there a gentleman in this room who would dare to give his famil}^ raw 
fat from the hog, promiscuously, to feed on three times a day 1 No, sir ; 
there is not one who would give it to them, if you would give him a- 
large sum of money. 

Senator Blair. They prove that it is unwholesome. It has been de- 
monstrated that it is hurtful. Physicians prove it. 

Mr. Van Valkenburgh. You cannot prove it by chemistry. 

Senator Blair. I do not say that it can be proved by chemistry, but 
physiological demonstration is what we want. 

Mr. Van Valkenburgh. You will have that before you get through. 
Tt will be here in a few weeks. 

Senator Blair. When that point is established, you have not only 
the right to tax it to any extent you desire, but you have the absolute 
right to prohibit it under the general policy that the Government has 
assumed with regard to the protection of the public health. We enact 
laws to exclude epidemics like yellow fever, and we exercise general 
control over the public health of the nation ; that has always been as- 
serted and exercised. 

Senator Plumb. What about the vegetable oils ; are they demonstra- 
ted unwholesome as well ? 

Mr. Van Valkenburgh. The demonstration proves this point. I 
have not seen the report and only take what Mt. Brown says is demon- 
strated ; I have not read it myself. They prove that butter will digest 
in less than one-half the time that any other oil that can be found will 
digest, and in less than one-third of the time that many of these oils will. 
That is one point, and certainly that is a strong point. That is only one, 
however j there are many others. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 2 



9 



Senator Plttmb. Do jou refj^ard it as uiiwliok'some l>ooanRO, as you 
say, it will not <]igest as ra])i(lly as butter f 

Mr. Van Valkenburgh. I do not wisli to make any statement ou 
that point. I am simply making a statement of wliat Mr. Brown claims 
in liis annual report. 

vSeuator Plttmb, I want to get at all the facts about it. 

Mr. Van Valkenbi kgh. I will read yon a few words about what 
Proiessor Clark, who has studied this nmtter, says : " In view of the di- 
gestive and micros('()])ical expoiments made for the dairy commissioner 
by Professor Clark, of Albany, and detailed in his report, this is likely 
tO])rove an up hiU task. Professor ('lark made a specialty of the phys- 
iological features of his subject, making experiuients in digestion and 
microsco])ical investigations, and in other ways showing the imi)ortance 
of ])ublic health by a thorough knowledge of what enters into any food 
product. As a residt of his researches h# arrived at the conclusion that 
oleomargarine is nnwholesorae and dangerous to health for four reasons. 
First, because it is indigestil)le ; second, because it is insoluble when 
made from animal fats ; third, that it is liable to carry the germs of dis- 
ease into the human system ; and fourth, that in the eagerness of man- 
ufacturers to produce their si)urious compounds chea])]y, they are 
tempted to use ingredients which are detrimental to the health of the 
consumer." Those are the })oints he has made in an interview. 

The Chairman. That will be brought out more fully, no doubt. Oui 
time has ex])ired, and we shall have to adjourn in a short time. 

Ml'. Van Valkenburgii. There is one question I would like to ask 
Senator Blair. He sjjcaks of the difliculties in taxing these compounds 
unless they are ])rovcd unwholesome. 

Senator Blair. 1 say, if you concede it to be a healthy food, the 
])eople of the country might find fault if we put a tax upon it. But our 
policy has always been to tax luxuries and hurtful articles. 

Mr. Van Valkenburgh. We only ask to have these goods taxed to 
cover that ])oint of fraud. We can and have demonstrated to a cer- 
tainty that these goods are retailed at a profit of from 10 to 20 cents a 
pound, and theretbre the public are not benefited by them. 

Senator Blair. Is not that the reason for their being sold under false 
pretenses f If you remove the false pretense and you concede it is a 
healthy tbod, why should it not go into the market for what it really is, 
a healthy food ? 

Mr. Van Valkenburgh. Because it will not be taken and eaten as 
nealthy food. The i^eople will not take it. and it will require more ma- 
chinery to enforce the law to have it where it is than 

Senator Blair. I do not wish to press it upon you. You do not see 
the point I make, but it is in my mind that this evidence you speak of 
will bo important evidence to sustain that law before the country, you 
will find. 

The Chairman. We will give the gentleman from New York, Mr. 
Miller, five minutes to state his views, and then the committee will have 
to adjourn. 

Mr. H. K. MILLER, of New York, then addressed the committee. 

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, five minutes is a very short time in 
which to speak upon this important subject, but questions have come 
up hero in regard to the healthfulness of this commodity, and I will 
simply say a few words upon the subject. I will not detain yon long. 
I recollect when I was a boy that our shoemaker told me that instead 



24 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

of usiug tallow to grease my boots with, to have my mother give me 
some fresh butter without salt to put on them, and he said my boots 
would last as long again. He said the impurities of the tallow helped 
to rot the leather. If you take this stuff that is made from these com- 
modities, of course it is full of impurities. I speak from experience 
and have the means of knowledge after being thirty-four years in the 
commission business in New York. We have sold a great deal of tal- 
low, and that tallow would sometimes be moldy and not fit for any- 
thing but soap as a general thing, and that is what we sold it for. But 
that day has gone by. We do not get any tallow now, because it is 
picked up by these people who work it into this bogus butter. There 
is no question about it; I know it to be the fact. Not only that, but 
they take all our grease butter. Within the past two months I have 
sold a large quantity to a house for 4^ cents a pound. I did not know 
what I was selling it for, but4t was not tit for anything but soap. That 
went into one of these mills and has gone into oleomargarine. Now 
can anybody say that that is a proper article to put into anybody's 
stomach, or that it can be a healthy article of food f Of course, it is 
very injurious and should not be used in that way, especially after it 
has gone through the cooking })rocess. 

iSeuator Plumb. You think the cooking of the tallow is what makes 
it injurious"? 

Mr. Miller. Yes, sir. My boots would wear as long again after 1 
adopted that ])lan 1 mentioned as before. I think it is unhealthy. 
Then, again, in regard to this lard that is used, I believe that very much 
of the hn'd ])roduced is unhealthy, and In fact pork itself. 1 know a fam- 
ily living at not a great distance from me who are troubled with scrofula, 
and in my opinion it is chieiiy caused by their using pork as a principal 
article of diet. Therefore I say it is an injurious compound when lard 
oil is used in this way. 

I want to say one word in regard to the exporting of butter. We ex- 
]>orted about $5,000,000 worth of butter during the past year. In the 
report of the Chamber of Commerce it says that we exported 3,450,000 (?) 
and some odd pounds during the past year, and I have every reason to 
believe that two-thirds of that amount was oleomargarine. 

Now, when we strike at anything like the dairy interests of our coun- 
try, the agricultural interests of our country, which we all know is the 
wealth of our country; when we impoverish the farmer, we impoverish 
the whole body-politic. I cannot find a man in New York who would 
not rather pay 40 cents a pound for butter than 10 cents a pound, or 
$10 a barrel rather than $5 a barrel for flour, when he takes into ac- 
count the general prosperity of the country. I hope the members of 
this committee Mill give this subject their most attentive consideration, 
and that you will press the matter home to your brother Senators, so 
that they will pass this bill and give protection to the agricultural 
classes of our country. We need protection. As I go up through Che- 
nango, Broome, and Delaware Counties during the past few years Itiud 
that such a man who has had his farm partly i)aid for has had to give 
it up, as this competition has been too much for him to contend with. 
Therefore, I say, the farmers need whatever protection you can give 
them in this matter. I will not trespass further oti your time. 

The Chairman. The committee will have to adjourn now, but there 
will be a meeting to-morrow morning at 10 o'clock to hear further state- 
ments upon the subject. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 25 

Washington, D. C, Thursday^ April 29, 1886. 

The committee was called to order at 10.15 a. in. 
The Chairman: Mr. Richardson, of New York, the president of the 
Orange County Milk Association, will address the committee. 

Mr. W. P. RICHAEDSON, of Goshen, Orange County, New York, 
said : 

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I propose at the pres- 
ent time to show you the injury that has been caused to a specific indus- 
try by the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine, butlenne, &c. And 
in order to do that I desire to explain the condition of the milk business 
of Orange County and the surrounding counties. Seventeen out of 
fifty-one counties in the State of New York are engaged in this busi- 
ness more or less. For fifty years it has been a leading industry in 
Orange County, but for a number of years prior to the year 1883 busi- 
ness had been depressed, from the fact that the men with whom the 
farmers were dealing were sharp and unscrupulous in their business 
ways and had succeeded in reducing the prices of milk to a figure that 
made the business uni)rofitable. In 1882 we formed an organization of 
the producers of milk for the New York market, an organization of 
farmers in that particular section, for the pur[)oseof mutual protection. 
We succeeded in 1883 in forming a strong association of some eight 
hundred members, and became an incorporated body, and succeeded by 
the withholding of milk, or by what was known at that time as the 
Orange County Milk War, in increasing the price of milk to the farmers 
of our county so that they received in the years 1883 and 1884 nearly 
a million dollars more for their product than they had received prior to 
that time^ — t hat is, in Orange County alone — or in the entire district nearly 
three million dollars. We held our prices during 1883 and until the 
latter part of 1885, when we found we were liable to be swamped. And 
it is at this i)articular moment that I desire to refer to the effect that 
the sale of oleomargarine and butterine had upon our business. The 
prices we were obtaining had placed all our farmers on theroad to prosper- 
ity. They were paying their debts, repairing old buildings, and putting 
up new ones. The farms in the adjoining counties which surrounded 
this milk district were devoted to the production of butter, and many 
persons found that we were obtain ingji rices much better than they could 
obtain in the manufacture of butter. They therefore turned their at- 
tention in this direction and commenced in 1883 and shipped a small 
quantity of milk to the cit}-, in 1884 a much larger quantity, and by 
the year 1885 they had begun the shipment of milk to New York in 
such quantities that they completely swamped us and reduced the prices 
we were obtaining until we are to day selling milk upon a poverty basis. 

I will give at this time a few facts and iigures to back up the state- 
ments I have made in regard to this depression. The amount of milk 
shipped to New York from Orange County, and also sold to the cream- 
eries there, amounts to about 400,000 quarts a day. The difference in 
])rice obtained between the year 1883 and the year 1885, caused by this 
depression in the butter counties, amounted to two-thirds of a cent a 
quart, which, multiplied by 400,000 quarts, amounts to $2,006 a day, or 
for a year it amounts to over $!>73,000. Taking the whole amount shipped 
to New York from the entire seventeen counties, which amounts to an 
average of 15,000 cans a day, and taking the amount held back in the 
creameries and used in the condensers, it amounts altogether to 1,100,000 
quarts a day produced in this district. That amount of milk, at a re- 



26 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

ilnetimi of two -thirds of a cent a quart, amounts to a total of $2,776,545 
for the entire district a year. That is the amount of depression that 
has taken phice in this territory from the eftect of the 4)attei' <toiuities 
bein.y compelled, from their low prices, to turn their jn-oduct into our 
market. 

Now, in the other form we consider that on an average 100 acres will 
cany twenty-five cows, which will give an average of 200 quarts of milk 
a day. The difference to the farmer between what he had received and 
was receiving was $486 for the year, a loss, per cow, taking the twenty- 
five cows, of about $20 each. 

In ort^er to show 'the competition that comes from this butteriue, I 
will say that in Oxford, Orange County, a butterine factory was estab- 
lished, the building itself costing not to exceed $500. They mr^le in 
that building a, ton of butterine a day. Taking 12 qu;«ts of milk to a 
pound of butter, wliich I think is a fair average (in some of our coun- 
ties it is called 10 quarts and in some 11, but I call it 12), it will take 
24,01)0 quarts of milk a day to produce this same amount of butter in 
the place of this butterine. Allowing 200 quarts to every UK) acres, it 
will require 12,000 acres of land to produce the same qinintity, and 
12,000 acres of land, at the average prices of our land to-day, $75 an 
acre, amounts (o $900,000. 

In other words, we liave on the one side a butterine factory, in which 
the ])]ant has cost ^roOO or $600, and it is producifug a product sufMcient 
to offset the product of 12,000 acres of land, worth nearly $1,0(10,000. 
That is about the ratio or proportion that the* ])rodu(;tion of butterine 
has to the production of butter, so far as the tarmer is concerned. I 
could make, in the same way, on my farm, enough butterine to supply 
a whole township. These are the facts which I desire to i)resent. 

There is one other matter which I am reminded of in looking over 
this bill. 1 would say that I have had some experience in the State of 
]N"ew York in connection with the passage of skim-milk bills and bills 
of similar purports, and we have been misled sometimes in finding our 
laws evaded by men whose interest it was to evade them. I know we 
passed a skim milk bill at one time in which it was said that every can 
should be marked " skim-milk." 0\w cans contain about forty quarts 
and stand so high [indicating |. The law said that the letters should 
not be less than an inch in length, but they evaded that requirement 
by making the letters about the width of a hair mark and using mate- 
rial the same as the can, so that it required a microscope, almost, to 
discover the letters. I find by looking at this bill that it is provided in 
section second that the full name aud address of the owner shall be "in 
letters not less than six inches in length," but saying nothing about the 
width of the letters, which will allow them to make a hair mark six 
inches in length, provided they see fit to do so. I would suggest that 
the words be added to the requirement, that the letters shall not be less 
than six inches in length and " one inch in width." 

Senator Blair. Suppose the provision should read " plainly legible 
to the naked eye"? 

Mr. KiciiARDSON. This bill provides that the letfi^rs shall be printed 
in white on a black ground or in black on a white ground, so that I 
suppose it would be legible provided you had the proper width. 

In closing my remarks T would urge upon the committee the fact that 
any amendment to this bill which reduces the tax less than 10 cents a 
pound would be an injury to the bill and a benefit to the producers of 
imitation butter. I undei'stand that at the present time they are mak- 
ing an eftbrt to introduce a bill or bills putting the tax in one case at 



IMITATTOK DAIRY PKODlTCTS. 27 

1 cent n pound, in another l)ill at 2 cents a pound, and in still anotber 
at 5 cents a i)ound, in order to divert attention and try to secure the 
])assage of a bill which will be sufficiently low so as not to interl^re 
materially with their business. If this bill cannot be ])assed by the 
National Government, then the State governments must ])ass bills pro- 
hibiting the sale of it, or in any other form they see tit; but a bill of 
this kind will be of great help in aiding the different State governments 
in shutting out this entire product. 

I am-very much obliged, gentlemen, for your attention. 

Mr. S. P. HIBBARD, of Boston, next jHldressed the committee. 
- Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I wish to make four 
])oints in what T have to say before the committee. The tirst point is 
the injury that is being done to the dairy business of the country; sec- 
ond, the damage to our own business; third, the fraud; and fourth, how it 
affects health; for yesterday, I believe, the committee wished to know 
something in regard to the latter point. 

The Chairman. Your second i)oint is " the damage to our own busi- 
ness." Will you please state what that business is, otherwise the record 
will not show. 

Mr. HiiJBARD. I am a commission merchant — a butter and cheese 
dealer in Boston. I was brought up in the northern part of Vermont, 
and am very familiar with the dairy business and dairy interests there. 
I think it will be conceded that the dairy interest is the greatest and 
largest, and has the most money invested in it, of any interest in our 
country, or at least that was the case ten years ago. Fifteen years ago, 
Saint Albans, Vt., was, as far as I know, one of the most enterprising 
and flourishing country towns in existence. The farmers in Franklin 
County, Vermont, and back further, bordering on the time of reciprocity 
with Canada, produced a very superior article of butter, which was 
brought into the Saint Albans market weekly and sold ibr extremely 
high prices. No higher prices were obtained in the country for that 
l)roduct, with the exception of Orange County, New York. Farmers 
were in a prosperous condition, and it was considered to be the wealthiest 
county in the State. 

In 1879, dairy i)roducts reached a very low point in price, as low as I 
have ever known them to be. Farmers became somewhiit discouraged, 
but yet not completely so ; they believed that better times were coming. 
In the fall of 1S79, dairy products advanced, and the farmers took hold 
of their dairies with renewed energies and interest, and for the balance 
of the year 1879, and during 1880 and a part of 1881, they (lid a pros- 
l^erous business. Then came along these various imitations. 

The Chairman. You say that prices reached their lowest mark in 
1879? 

Mr. HiBBARD. Yes ; we bought butter lower in the first part of the 
summer of 1879 than at any other time within recent years. 

The Chairman. According to my information, i)roducts were cheaper 
last year in New York than they have been for twenty-five years. 

Mr. HiBBARD. We bought butter cheaper in 1879 than we have since 
I have been in the business at any time, and I have been in business 
twenty years. 

The Chairman. Cheese and butter have not sold as low in New. York, 
as last year, for twenty-five years. 

jVIr. HiBBARD. We bought dairy butter in Vermont, in 1879, for 
12 and 14 cents a ])ound, and I never have bought it as low during the 
twenty years I liave been in business as in that year. In 1880 and 
1881 came along this competition from imitation butter, and that com- 



28 IMITATION DvVmY PRODtJCTS. 

petition lias ^rowii until to-day tlie nuniher of cowsin Fninldin County, 
Vermont, is but a little oxer 50 per cent, of wluit it was from 1870 to 
1880. Farms also have depreciated in value fully one-half. I want to 
state right here that there are peculiarities about the lands in Franklin 
County, Vermont, and, in fact, all over Vermont ;ind in certiiin ])arts of 
New Hampshire, so that the farms are not adapted to any other branch 
of industry except dairying-, and they are more adapted to the butter 
interest than to the making of cheese. And from this com]>etition, 
which we have no ho])e of ever being reached, although State laxys have 
been tried,! say this business has been depressed until the farms have 
depreciated in value and there is a feeling of dei)re8sion whiclj I cannot 
liken to anything else thanthatof a community seized with a contagious 
disease from which they think there is no possible escape, and it is sim- 
ply submitting to a fate that is worse than <leath. I wish this committee 
to feel and to know the condition of affairs as regards the dairy interests 
of New Hampshire (I think Senator Blair knows something about it) 
and Vermont, as well as Northern New^ York. Eight across the line 
into Canada they do not feel it at all. These articles are not used, sold, 
or made there. 

1 do not wish to go into figures to any extent, but 1 have looked 
into this matter pretty carefully, and I am quite well satisfied that 15 
•per cent, of the product made in the United States is imitation butter. 
Of course farmers consume a great deal of their own product, and the 
local towns, villages, and cities in the country consume generally pure 
butter. But as near as I can come at it, 60 ])er cent, of the product 
goes to the markets and to the large cities. Now, all the imitation but- 
ter goes to the large cities, which niakes it very evident that from 25 
to 33^- per cent, of all the butter consumed in our large cities is imita- 
tion butter. Take that same amount of money which is paid for it, and 
put it into the hands of our dairymen in the country, and you will re- 
store to that extent their prosperity. And I think yon will all agree 
with me that the business prosperity of the country depends more 
largely upon the success of the farmer tlwiu most anything else. The 
farmers are the consumers, to the largest extent, of our manufactured 
goods. When farmers are getting good prices for their products, busi- 
ness all over the country is good. It costs the farmer in these sections 
I have mentioned, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York State, 
from 15 to 20 cents a pound to manufacture his butter, taking into ac- 
count the capital invested. With ])rices ranging as they are, with the 
competition of oleomargarine and these iuiitation butters, it brings his 
product at just about the cost, and there is nothing left for him. I be- 
lieve that if this law is passed, it will bring imitation butter up on a 
level with the price of pure butter, that prices would range about 25 
per cent, higher, from 20 to 25 cents a i)ound, and the farmers would 
get a good living profit. All that we can add to what they have been 
obtaining for the last three or four years is simply protit, and it would 
put this large amount of money into the jiockets of the producers of 
dairy products. 

Now, one word in regard to the injury to our business, and I will en- 
deavor to be brief on this point. As my associate stated yesterday, it 
is impossible for men to compete with the dealers in imitation butter and 
make an honest lining. I am intimately acquainted and associated with 
one of the largest exporters of butter from Montreal. There are two 
or three times in the year that he can come to Boston and buy from our 
cold storage butter at a less price than he can buy it in Montreal. He 
came there iu 1884 and in 1885, and bought several car-loads of butter 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 29 

at each time. He Avill buy no butter that is branded to locate it. The 
last time he was there he bought creamery butter made at Louisville in 
New York State. It was branded " Louisville Creamery," nothing more. 
If it had been branded " Louisville Creamery, New York," he said he 
would not have bought it. Freights are as cheap from Boston to Glas- 
gow or Edinburgh as they are from Montreal. Yet he bought all that 
butter, several car-loads each season, and put it into the cars at Boston, 
and was at the expense of icing it, shipping it to Montreal, and export- 
ing it from Montreal to Glasgow. 

The Chairman. \^ou say that no oleomargarine is made in Canada? 

Mr. HiBBAED. It may be, but only to a very limited extent. 

The Chairman. Is there a Dominion law regulating it, or what is the 
cause of it 1 

Mr. HiBBARD. I do not know how that is, but they do not have any 
competition there from it, and the people in Scotland and England, 
particularly in Scotland, are very jealous and fearful of American but- 
ter, fearing it is adulterated, and, as far as they possibly can, they avoid 
it. But this Montreal dealer takes his butter from Boston to Montreal 
and exports it. 

Now, perhaps, some friend may try to catch a point there on the 
clearance pai>ers. I will state that in regard to butter coming from the 
Boston market in bond, ship]»ed in bond, we have to get a landing cer- 
tificate in Scotland or England before our bond can be canceled in Bos- 
ton. But the law is different in Canada. The clearance i)apers of a 
steamer clearing from Montreal or Quebec will cancel the bond, so that 
they do not need a landing certificate from the other side to cancel that 
bond. 

The Chairman. They cannot tell, then, iu Edinburgh or Liverpool 
that the butter came from the United States, because there is. nothing 
• to show it on the other side ; it passes for Canadian butler. 

Mr. HiBBARD. It is shipped from there, and is supposed to be Cana- 
dian butter. 

In regard to this matter of fraud, I wish to say a few words. I have 
drawn a little diagram to illustrate what I have to say upon the sub- 
ject. We have a State law in Massachusetts which provides that oleo- 
margari^ie shall be sold for what it is. One of our Boston detectives 
was notified that a certain party was selling oleomargarine or imitations 
of butter, and was sent out to detect him. He saiJ he went in a store 
and saw the man, a retail grocer, selling these goods. In one part of the 
store was a tub marked " oleomargarine," and near by was a tub of ordi- 
nary dairy butter. In one place was a sign reading, " Oleomargarine, 15 
cents a pound," and on the other side the sign, "Y^our choice of this butter 
at lio cents a pound." He stood there and saw several persons come in 
and taste of the different kinds, ainl they would select one or the other of 
them, and the grocer would get apieceof i)ai)er marked "oleomargarine" 
on it in small letters, and he would wraj) it up in that paper and they 
would take it away. And the detective stood there and saw that thing 
going on, and he said he could not touch them. The tub was branded 
'•oh'omargarine,"and it was donc^ uj) iu apri)er marked "oleomargarine." 
I asked the grocer, he said, " Don't tliose people suppose they are get- 
ting pure l)utter!" "Yes," he said, "they do; but they are getting 
imitation butter." 

Now, that is the condition our State law is in ; it fails to reach them. 
This bill, as I understand it, proposes to tax oleomargarine and these 
other com|)onnds 10 cents a pound. It costs 9 to 12 cents a ])ound to 
manufacture it, and that brings the price of it right up to that of aver- 



30 IMITATION DAIRY PEODUCTS. 

age butter. Under the provisions of tliis bill there would be no induce- 
ment on the i)cirt of the retailer to deceive people. He could not afibrd 
to retail it any less than he could retail butter, and there would be no 
fraud practiced, and if this article is what they claim it to be, it will 
stand on its merits and be sold for what it is, and if people want it they 
will pay for what they buy and know what they are buying. That is 
my ground for taxing it. 

I do not (;ome here asking that special legi slation be enacted to pro- 
tect me in my business alone, but I ask that the community may be 
protected from this fraud, that the dairy interest of our country may be 
protected from it. I bear with me a circular letter addressed to the 
representatives and members of the senate from Massachusetts, and 
we state in that letter our grounds for making this appeal. It is signed 
by seventy-seven ])ersons engaged in our trade, and every one who was 
asked to sign this letter signed it except three, one of whom was inter- 
ested in the manufacture, and the other two said they had become tired of 
trying to legislate on the subject, and did not care to do anything about 
it. Many of those are dealers. Before coming on here Mr. Chapin and 
myself went to see them to ask them how much of that butter they 
supposed was retailed as imitation butter, and how much as pure 
butter, and they said that from 80 to 90 ])er cent, of it was sold as pure 
butter. Talk with the retailers and they will tell you that they cannot 
and do not sell it to anybody but boarding-house keepers, restaurant, 
and hotel-keei)ers for what it is. They sell a large amount of it, and 
if tliey are caught and fined they make it up by their profits before 
(Saturday night comes around. I think our friend from Chicago covered 
tliis ground pretty well when he said that the manufacturers of oleomar- 
garine had stolen the livery of heaven to serve the devil in. I believe 
that every conceivable grease of the very filthiest kind in our country 
is manufactured into imitation butter and sold to cousuniers. Large 
])ork dealers in Boston tell us that all their scrap fats are sent back to 
('hicago. If they come in occasionally, as they do, with 4 or 5 dead 
hogs in the cart, they are not given to the soap-dealers, as was formerly 
the case. In 1880, while at one of our largest hotels at Xautasket 
Beach, where I was then stopping, there came out a lengthy article 
in one of our daily ija])ers in regard to the subject. It was when they 
first commenced to manufacture butterine. I think it was in 1880. As 
we understand it, butterine and suine are lard pioducts, while oleouiar- 
garine is the term ap])lied to tallow ])roducts. As I liai)|)ened to be 
the only dealer in butter stopping at the hotel, of course I was assailed 
eontinnally for several days in a. joking way by people, and tbe hotel- 
keeper afterwards told me tliat the consum[)tion of butter for one month 
after that article appeared dropped off 50 per cent, in his hotel, 

>Si)eaking of myself personally, I have been troubled a great deal with 
scrofula, and have ))aid a great many doctors' bills, and the doctors have 
positively forbidden me to eat pork in any form whatever. What am I 
going to do? I am a butter dealer and regard myself as a pretty good 
judge of butter. But, as our friend from Chicago says, they injitate this 
l)e]lectly, so that I cannot always tell the genuine from tlie counterfeit, 
and when I am away from home, or am at a hotel or restaurant, and have 
])laced beibre me what is supposed to be buttei', but which is probably 
three-quarters lard, and I think that the hog from which it was made 
may have died of sonu' disease, it is not ^'ery pleasant, to say the least. 
We sell to a I'arty who sn]>i>lies the homeopathic hospital with butter, 
and I asked him why Ihey did not use oleomaigarine there. He said 
there is nut a hospital in Boston that would use it, and he did not be- 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 31 

lieve there was one in the Uni>;:^(l States, and there ought not to he one 
in the world tliat would daie to nse it. 1 Invve had a great many physi- 
cians tell nie that they believe that ^»right's disease is produced to a 
very large extent by the adulterations used in the manufacture of imi- 
tation butter. I do not know how true that may be, or how far they 
may go, but still I believe it. I do not believe it is ]30Ssible to do any- 
thing' in the way of legislation that will suj)])ress or stam]) this thing 
out that is going to injure but a very few people who are making money, 
and making' it with a knowledge that they are deceiving ])eople. In all 
our legislation — and I think all the gentlemen })resent will bear me out 
in this — in all our State legislation since this question came up, and I 
have spent days and days at our state-house endeavoring to get a State 
law, these mauufactureis have been there in a body o])posing every step 
we have ever taken. Why ? Because they wanted the privilege of sell- 
ing their comi)Ounds as ])ure butter. 

My associate from Boston, Mr. Chai)in, alluded yesterday, in his re- 
marks, to a particular creamery that had been on our mai ket — the Good 
Luck Creamery. They had a representative iuour market this winter, 
and 1 heard of it a good many times. People Lavf^ said, "Do you 
know al)Out the Good Luck Creamery ? It is a fine article, being sold 
here exclusively." After awhile it was found out that it was butterine, 
but there had been thousands and thousands of ]!Ounds of that product 
sold as ])ure butter. The i)arties were arrested and fined $100, and I 
have no doubt they had made $5,000 during the time they ha<l been sell- 
ing it. If this law had been on our natioual statute-books taxing it 
and putting it in the hands of our Internal Revenue Bureau to collect 
the tax of ten cents a pound, there would have been no desire on the 
part of the retailers, or the dairymen, or any one else to have repre- 
sented it falsely, because it would have sold at the price of pure buttei'. 
That is uiy object and desire in having this tax, that it will stamp out 
the injuiy to the dairy interest, and that it may i)rotect tlu' community 
from the great fraud being perpetrated upon it, J thank the comnjirtee 
for listening to me so long. 

Mr. G. W. MAlvTlN, of New York, then addressed the committee. 

Mr. Hibbard covered the ground to which I wish to call your atten- 
tion in part. 1 desire to si)eak first as to the importance ol' our export 
trade. On Tuesday, before J lel't New York, the purchasing agent of 
the Co operative Association of the United Kingdom came into our store 
and told me ])ersonaIly that t'heir sales per annum weie -0,000,000 
])Ounds of butter in the United JCingdom alone fiom their various stores. 
Tueir sales of cheese are about ten times this amount. They purchase 
the laigest ])r()portion of their chees(un America, but it is im])ossiblefbr 
us to sell them butter. While we have sold them bills of cheese aggre- 
gating twenty seven to thirty thousand dollars at one time, it is imi)os- 
sible for us to sell them any butter, because his people are feai'ful of 
getting adulterated goods. One of the largest maiiulactories of imita- 
tion butter in America, that of Messrs. Armour & Co., through their 
agent at the Chicago convention last year, declared oi)eidy that they 
were supplying thirty-eight creameries with their oleo oil to adulterate 
their butter with. The i)ublic declarations of these maiuifacturers liave 
gone aluoad, and they have become so distrustful of our butter, which 
at one time was ex])orted largely, that it is almost im])ossible for us to 
sell it for export. When they do take our buttei' they take it at the 
])rice of the imitation goods. There was a time in my business expe 
rience when I was selling a thousand packages of butter a week at good 
fair average prices for export. "We do not sell that much now in iwoov 



32 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

three months' time. I have sold as hii;h as 30,000 packages of New York 
State butter in a month's time to export to England, but it is utterly 
impossible to do so now. That has been brought about by these adul- 
terations. Some of onr largest firms are doing nothing at nil in the way 
of ex]^orting bntter, because the people on the other side are using oleo- 
margaiine, and tliousands of packagesof oleomargarine are beingshipped 
every week to Glasgow nnd Ijiverpool. The Glasgow market at one time 
took a large quantity of our butter, but it has been superseded by oleo- 
margari)ie, and that trade driven entirely out of the market. 

The question was asked yesterday as to what effect this has on our 
exports. I wish you to take note of this fact. Mr. John Gledhill, the 
buyer of this co-operative association, one of the largest cooi)erative 
associations in the world, which supplies goods to what are called the 
laboring classes in England, says they wish for butter, and they wish 
for butter alone. But they distrust our butter on account of the large 
amount of oleomargarine that is manufactured. It is just the same way 
with all our manufacturing towns. We had a large New Englajid trade, 
but we hav«^ none to-day. I was doing business amounting to luilf a 
million of dollars a year in New England, but I am doing nothing now, 
comi>aratively, because they are using these artificial goods. Last week 
1 received a letter from a customer in New Haven and filled his order 
of five small packages of fresh butter. I wrote to hiai and said I was 
glad to receive his order and hoped it would soon be larger. The next 
day I received a letter saying that he had received the package of but- 
ter and at the same time he had received forty-two packages of Chicago 
luitterine. 'Jhose parties are selling two or three hundred packages of 
butter a week. 

1 v/as born in Saint Lawrence County, New York, and spent the first 
nineteen years of my life on a/farm. 1 spent the next four years in the 
Army of Ihe United States. I have not been in Washington since I 
left the Army until this year. My father is a farmer, and my mother 
and sisters are farmers' wives. One sister is a farmer's wife in Jeffer- 
son County, and one sister is a farmei's wife in Dakota. My sister came 
down lo Watertown yesterday, no doubt, with aoOpound tub of butter 
which she ]irobably sold at 15 cents a pound, and is obliged to sell it at 
that j)iice because the Jews of New York turned out last week six 
thousand ]M>unds of oleomargarine, at a cost of 9 cents a ])Ound. A 
million farmers to-day find their business depressed and taken from 
them for the sake of putting money in the pockets of a few manufact- 
urers. The benefit to the country of the purchases of thefaruiers who 
make our butter is ten thousand times greater than that of these manu- 
facturers of oh'oniargarine. The farmer buys all the products of the man 
ufacturer of New England. And yet it was impossible for me to get the 
car of a New England Senator yesterday because he was listening to 
the debate on the subsidy bill, and also expected to have the Chinese 
affair come up. We think as business men that the best subsidy is that 
gained by encouraging our commerce. One of the arguments used on 
the lloor of the Senate yesterday was that this subsidy bill would 
enable our people to export two or three hundre<l thousand dollars' 
worth of manulactured articles every month. Now the direct loss to 
this country every day from tiie depression brought upon the dairy in- 
terest is infinitely greater than the loss which would ensue to us froui 
the loss of the ex[)ort of these few n)anufactuied articles to South Anu^r- 
ica. I only desire to (-all your attention to this matter for the reason 
that it seems to us who are interested in the matter that theie is an 
apathy on the part of Senators in regard to it, and viefeel that we mo 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 33 

iu the bauds of this committee, so to speak, and we do want your sym- 
pathy and hearty co-operation. But unless > ou can make it a personal 
affair with all these other Senators, and explain tiie matter to them, 
we feel that we cannot get any favorable action. This committee does 
not need iiistrnctions from any of us. Yon an- better posted than we 
are. But unless this committee, which is interested with us in tliis 
matter, l)rings it personally to the attention of these other Senators, we 
shall not be able to get this bill parsed. But if you will do that, and 
take h(»ld of it as heartily as you take hold of other questions that come 
up in this body, the bill will be i)asi'ed. Unless it is passed, my peo|)le 
who are in the northern ])art of the State of New iTork, and wiio are in 
Dakota, have got to succumb. My brother-in law )>urchas(^d a. farm 
eight years ag(\ but has found it utterly im|>ossible to pay for it since 
the depression of dairy prices, and has lost his farm; and it is utterly 
im]»ossible for any young man to day to purchase a farm anywhere in 
the daily belt and pay for the farm by the labor of his hands and what 
lie can [»roduce from it. He cannot do it. Farmers do not get more 
than 15 cents a iioundon the average in the United States for their but- 
ter. They did not get 9 cents a pound on the average in the United 
States during the last year. They could have gotten 20 cents a pouud 
for that whole product if we had U(»t been forced to the wall by these 
imitation i)roducts. Within three weeks live thousand ])ackages of 
Chicago butterine have come into the market in the city of New York, 
and at tiie same time they were flooding all the N-ew England towns 
with it. We were selling new dairy butter at 25 to 28 cents a i)ound. 
We were getting under way when they flooded us, and that broke the 
price in ten (bus' time 10 cents a i)ouud. We were i)aying farmers in 
Northern New Yoik 22 to 25 cents a pound for their dairy ])roduct. 
To-day I utterly refuse to buy butter for 15 cents a pound, because I 
don't know but what 1 might have to put it down to a shilling a pound. 
Now these young men cannot make farming pay under these circum- 
stances. They will be driven from their farms. You ask why don't the 
young men stay on the farm. Why don't I stay on the farm — you ask 
me that question. I could not stay on the farm and get a living, and 
to day no youugman who undertakes to buy a farm and pay for it from 
dairying (^an succeed in doing so; he will go to the poor-house unless 
be is protected. 

•i advocate this tax because I want to Bee my people protected from 
the sale of these fraudulent goods. I believe that legislation that pro- 
tects the greatest number results in the greatest good. I believe that 
is what we shoidd do. 1 have no symi)athy with those people who say 
that we should not legislate in the interest of the farmer, that it is class 
legislation, and that we should not tax a few manufacturers. Why, 
you can count all the manufacturers of these goods on your two hands 
to-day. Armour with his millions stands behind them, because it pats 
more money in his i)ocket, while our brothers and sisters are co;n[)elled 
to mo barefooted, wear coarse clothing, go without carpets on their 
floors, and work from tive in the morning until nine at night to gain a 
bare subsistence. I hope the members of this committee will make this 
a personal affair. The facts are before you all, before you. Senator 
Miller and Senator Blair, and all the rest of you, and I hope you will 
exjjlain thent to those Senators who do not understaud the matter as 
you do. 

The Chairman. You probably understand that the Senate cannot 
originate a tax bill like this, but that it must first pass the House of Kej)- 
reseutatives before we cau act upon it. 
17007 OL 3 



34 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Mr. Martin. I understand that. 

The Chairman. We granted tliis hearing as a preliminary matter so 
that we could be ready to act in ease the House of Representatives 
passes such a bill. 

Mr. Martin. The gentleman who preceded me called your attention 
particularly to the injury done to the daii'v interest, that is the great 
injury that conies to the farmers. 1 notice by the ])ai)ers that you had 
a big meeting in this city the other night, which was jiddressed by 
nearly all the prominent men in Washington, symiiathizing with the 
Irish ]i( (i])le. We shall haM' a class ol peasantiy in the United States 
worse (iff han the peasantry of Iieland in tive yeais' time, if we allow 
our daily interest to be driven to the wall. Go to the New England 
States today, where we can produce the best butter in America, and 
you will find the land there growing uj) into bushes jind bminbles. The 
old farm of my father in Vermont is nothing but a wilderness to day, 
and his taiin in Jeffeison Counl.v will be a wilderness in ten years more 
if he is not protected, but is diiven to the wall. Tiiat is why we want 
this tax imposed. If we do not have the tax we cannot have anything. 

Mr. J. H. Keall. Allow me to make a suggestion as to why more 
farmers aie not here to addiess th<^ committee. I wish to say that the 
gentleman who has last spoken is one of the largest dealers in the coun- 
try. He handles the goods for the farmers, from which he gets a profit 
of frotn 3 to 5 ])er cent. He comes here to represent the farmers and 
butter ])roducers from all sections of the country. The farmers have not 
the money to s})are to pay for the exjx uses of their coming here. I 
want you to regard yourselves as representing the farmers of the whole 
countrv ; thev are vour direct constituents. 

Mr. LEONARD RHONE, of Pennsylvania, said: 

Mr. Chairman, as stated by Colonel Piollet yesterday, we are here 
as a committee of the Pennsylvania State Grange, representing an or- 
ganization of farmers, with a membership of j)robably over forty thou- 
sand. The people connected with this organization are engaged in ag- 
riculture. Some are dairymen, others are stockbreeders, and others 
again are engaged in the cultivation of cereals. Perh;ips in no State 
in the Union is agriculture so diversified as in ours. Consequently 
our interests are varied. It is but seldom that farmers come to the 
National legislature to ask for legislation, and I think if you will look 
over the records of the history of legislation at Washington, you will 
find fewer committees appearing here from the agricultural class than 
from any other class in this country. There are several reasons for 
this. Farmers have always been the pioneers in every country. Be- 
fore it was possible for towns and cities to be built, before governments 
existed, and belore manufactures could be established, lands had to be 
cleared of their forests and brought under cultivation to make it possi- 
ble for those industries to exist. Thus by long training have they be- 
come self-reliant, and they would not be here to-day were it not that 
their industry is imperilled by a fraudulent counterfeit that proposes to 
take the place of their products. It takes months and years to build 
up a dairy farm. It cannot be done in a day, and when you have it 
properly stocked it is an expensive operation. But it is much easier 
for capital to combine and establish a manufactory to make this coun- 
terfeit product and throw it upon the market, and they can do it at a 
very much lower price than it can be done by engaging in agriculture 
or in the dairy business. 

With these preliminary remarks, I simply want to lay before you the 
memorial which we have been instructed to present to you. As Colonel 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 35 

Piollet made an elaborate argumcut liefore you yesterday iu behalf of 
our committee, I do not i»ropose to detain you or burden you with any 
lengthy argument. 

As I have stated, we come here duly authorized to address your 
honorable body, and we respectfully petition you for the adoption of 
some measure that will suppress the inanufactnre of imitation butter, 
oi- protect our dairy interests by plaiting the manufactnre and sale of all 
imitations of butter under the control of the Commissioner of Internal 
Keveuueof the UnittMl States and taxing it ten cents per pound. The 
reasons wiiicii impel us to ask your lionorablc comiiittce to approve 
such legislation may be brieliy siimiiiarized as follows: 

. ur exports of butter have fallen off in the last five years from 
40,()0(),(K)0 i)ounds to 'Jl,000,()(Kt pcmnds, while the exports of imiJ^atious 
ha\e exceeded 37, 000, 000 pounds. This decline, sour i)etitio ers are 
satistied, is dne to the destruction of public confi<lence in American 
dairy produ(;ts, brought about by the exportation of an impure and un- 
wholesome compound which is frequently sold in the foreign market as 
genuine dairy butter. The sale of the butter prodnct of the tar.n is in 
this manner rednced by one half, occasioning a corresponding deprecia- 
tion of f;irm lands, as well as entaihng an iiu;alculable loss npon the 
farming industries of the United States. Such legislation is absolutely 
necessary t<»save the dairy indnstry of the country fi'om ruin and pro- 
tect the consnmers of butter from fraud and imi)ositioii. We therefore 
hope this honorable committee will favorably leport a measure i)roduct- 
ive of these beneficial results. 

Senator Blair. Where do you get the statistics which you have 
just quoted f 

Mr. Rhone. From the report of the Commercial Exchange, and also 
from the reports of the daily exports fiom New York, Philadelphia, and 
other cities. 

Senator Blair. And they show this distinction between the real and 
the counterfeit article'^ 

Mr. Rhone. Yes, sir. I have been credibly informed that in Phila- 
delphia the products of lard are sold there purely to oleonuirgarine 
n)anufactories, not being rendered, but being treated with nitiic acid, 
and in that way deodorized, and afterwards converted into oleomarga- 
rine by a chemical i»rocess. I have also been credibly informed that ia 
many of the slaughterhouses of the West diseased and dead animals 
are put up under the pretense of being used in st)a]) factories, but the 
better part of them are used for oleomargarine purposes. It is also on 
record by the medical profession that there are cases where persons 
have been inoculated with trichina by the use of suine and butterine ; 
and if this is the case in trichina, is it not possible also to endanger the 
public health by the inoculation of cholera when oleomargarine, suine, 
and such products are nuide out of animals ol a diseased character? 
There is no chemical piocess by which we can determine these diseases. 
It is only after the persons using them become inoculated with it that 
the ])hysicians can determine that such sperms of disease exist in these 
products. Hence the public generally are as much interested in this 
subject as the farmers. But it is only in behalf of our people that we 
are here, and that we have presented this memorial before your com- 
mittee. We believe you are disposed to do what is right to the agri- 
cultural interest and thereby also preserve the public health of this 
country. 

Thanking you for your attention, not deeming it necessary under the 
circumstances to say more, as Colonel Piollet made an argument on be- 
half of our committee yesterday, I conclude my remarks. 



36 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Mr J. H. CRANE, of Washin<;tou, D. C, addressed the committee, 
as follows : 

Mr. Cliairinaii and gentlemen of the committee, as a disfratichised cit- 
izen of the District of Columbia, last evening- I ventured to put a few 
thoughts aiul facts on jjaper in regard to this subject, which if the coui- 
inittee care to hear I will read. I will only occupy a short time in so 
■doing. 

While ])assing thrnngh the Center Market in Washington the other 
day my attention was called to a most singular sign, over what seemed 
to be a butter stand, though from the (puuitity of tlowers displayed I 
was led at first to infer that it was a tioral exhibition. The sign is in 
large letters, jiainted on muslin, and reads as follows: "Prejudi(;e is a 
thief and will rob you oi' many good things and dollais." Over this sign 
is another, i)ainte(l on wood, reading "National Butterine Association." 
I was presente<l with two tiacts. One is headed "Plain facts about 
butteiine." Theothei;, '' Higher wagrs an<l cheajjeifood ; honest words 
to honest nuMi ; the Knights of Labor and the consumers of the United 
States." Both tracts arc anonymous. It struck me as souiewhat re- 
iimrkable that the author, if he or she has facts to gi\'e the people oris 
really the friend of the poor and desirous of aiding the Knights oi' Labor, 
did nor make these statements o\er his or her own signature. Also 
that the name of the agent of the National IJutterine Association does 
not ajtpear on their sign. People that really have a good thing are 
generally willing to ha\e tlie credit of it. 

Their first circular commences by giving a tabular statement of the 
price of best butter on the 1st of January and 1st of July each year 
from 1857 to 18G1, and from 1877 to 188.5. They make the a\erage price 
for the five years ending July, 1801, 20 2-5 cents, and the average for 
the past four years ending June 24, 1^85. 29 18 cents, or 45 per cent, 
iiigher than before oleomargarine was known. This is not a fair or a 
truthful statement. In 1857 and for nearly fifteen years afterwards no 
such article as creamery butter was known, the maikets of the world 
being supi)lied with dairy butter, which was mostly made in summer 
and packed away for winter use, rarely varying more than five or six 
cents per i)ouiul. The difference in winter, the past few years, between 
fancy Iresh creamery buttei-, and tine old daiiy butter has averaged 
from 10 to 15 cents i)er pound. The highest i)rice to day, for fancy 
fresh creamery butter, as shown by this morning's New York whole- 
sale i)rice current is 24 cents i)er pound, and of best old dairy butter 
14 cents j)er pound, showing the average to be 10 cents i)er pound, or 
1 2 5 of a cent per i)ouml less than in 1857, instead of being 45 per 
cent, more as they have it. The only fair way of getting at this ques- 
tion is to take the average price of all grades of })ure butter today, 
and contrast it with the average price of all grades of i)ure butter be- 
fore any such articles as oleonuugaiine or butterine were known. If we 
<lo this we will find that butter is chea])er now than then. Their state- 
ments are not only illogical but untruthtul. In one breaih they claim 
to be the farn)er's friend by causing the i)]ice of buttei lo advance, in 
the next, they chiim to be the jioor man's iriend by giving him a cheap 
substitute for butter. They claim that by buying pure butter to mix 
with grease they have caused butter to advance, and by buying giease to 
mix with pure butter, they have caused grease to advance, thereby l)lay- 
iug into the farmer's hands in two ways, while at the same time they are 
tbe benefactors of the i)Oor by furnishing them with a cheap article of 
food. Let us see how this woiks. The farmer whose dairy butter once 
brought from twenty to thirty cents per pound, finds his butter, owing to 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 37 

the o'lvat sale of oleomargarine, languishing for a market, and finally sohl 
at from ten to fifteen cents per pound, wliile the poor man pays at retail 
from twenty to thirty cents per pound for grea>>e — oftentimes deodorized 
soap grease flavored with butyric acid — that costs the manufacturer 
from five to seven cents per pound. They started in here by paying the 
butchers seven cents a pound for their grease. Today they are ])ayiu!^ 
2^ cents for suet and two cents for mutton tallow, that after being; 
manipulated with chemicals they offer the poor man at retail, at from, 
twenty to thirty cents per pound, an advance above first cost of raw 
ujateiial of 1,000 jicr cent., and then have the audacity to claim to be 
his friend. They first took suet from the farmer's beeves, at 7 cents per 
pound. They now pay 2i cents per pound, and yet claim to be the 
farmer's friend. 

They quote in their circulars from some twenty diftcrent chemists in 
favor of oleoujargarine, all of which ]»roves nothing, as most of the 
opinions were given years ago on a good article of oleomargarine, a very 
different thing fr(Mii the compounds sold to day as butteriue. The i)rc- 
fessors sjx'ak of an article such as was once sold by the Thurbeis and 
the Seymours, but which, owing to the disgustiui': materials now used 
and the injury to the dniry business, has caused those gentlemen to> 
quit selling any kind of imitation butter and biought them into the 
Iront ranks of those who are waiting war on this bogus article. 

This circular winds ujj with Prof. C. Grilber; Wheeler, who closes a» 
most extravagant eulogium of in)ilation butter, by s.iying '-The state- 
ments that acids are used in its m;niufacture is absurd, as there can be 
no {)0>sibleuse fcr such chemicals.'" I have procured from the Patent 
Ofltice coi)ies of nil the patents granted for making imitation butter, or 
purifying aniujal fats for this purpose. Nineteen are for making artifi- 
cial butter, eleven for treating animal fats, two for purifying butter, two 
for coloring mattei-, one for artificial cream, and one for artificial lard. 
T have made a few excerpts from some of these patents, whicli prove 
that the professor is not very well posted on the bogus butter question,, 
to bolster up which he has loaned his eminent name. 

First, I quote from Patent No. 2(»3,199, granted to Mr. Nathan J. 
Nathan, of New York, August 22, 1882. iM<\ssrs. N. I. Nathan & Co. are 
the firm that recently doiiated several tubs of butteriue to sundry whole- 
sale produce dealers here, accompanied with a circular (the same that 
was lecentiy published in the Star), in which they say their butterine 
is made under the said Nathan patent. Alter giving a long and minute 
descrijition of his jirocess, Mr, Nathan closes by saying, " W' hat I (daim 
is: The within-described i)rocess of auinufactnring artificial butter by 
uniting oleomargarine with leaf lard, the latter having been previously 
cleansed, fused, strained, and subjected to washing action in a solutiou 
of water, borax, and nitric acid, then rewashed, and the united mass- 
heated and subjected to the ordinary churning operation, all substan- 
tially in the manner described." Mr. Nathan uses no butter in making- 
his compound, as is evident he could not, for he only asks 10 cents per 
pound for it, but he uses borax and nitric acid, thereby giving the lie to 
Professor Wheeler. 

Here comes another who uses neither butter, cream, milk or butter- 
milk. 

Patent No. 236,483 was granted to Otto Boysen, of Buffalo, N. Y., 
January 11, 1881. Mr. Boysen describes his invention as follows: 

I Hist separate tlip olein and margarine from tlie stearine by any known metliod — 
for example, by luincinji ami meltinj;- the fat and then pressinjf it in l)aojs of opeu 
texture. I next i.hiee the oleomargarine thus obtained with an alkaline solution. 



38 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

])riff'i :i''ly in tlio f.>]lo\viiig projtoi tions : To PO pounds of oleomargarine 20 i)onii(l8of 
water and 8 ounces of bicarbonate of soda. I next agitate the oleomargarine and the 
alkaline solution togetlier until the oil ghibnles of the former are thoroughly mixed 
with the alkaline solution and jiarlly saj>onitied by the action of said alkali. I then 
add to the oleonuirgarine thus i)artly saiionilied a small quantity of butyric acid, 
preferably in the jirojiortion of 1 dram to every 101) pounds. This gives to the aiiicle 
such a tine tla\(>r that even an ex])ert can sciii'cely distinguish it from excellent dairy 
butter. Of course the butyric acid thus added may be vaiied to suit the require- 
ments of each pariicular aiticle, or the tastes of certain classes of jiurchasers. This 
process, as above described, avoids the use of milk, and consequently the use of caseiue. 

It will be ohserved that Mr. Boyseii hides a ]»ait of his ])iocess from 
ordinary readers under the hijih-sounding' word "saponified." What is 
the meaninj^ of that word ? "Saponitied," according to Webster, is the 
conversion of grease into soap. Mr. Boyseu's meaning, when stated iu 
ordinary English, would read about as follows : " I then add to the ohio- 
margarine, thus partly made into soai», a small quantity of butyric acid. 
This gives to the article partly made into soap such a fiiH:^ flavor that 
even an expert can scarcely distinguish it from excellent dairy butter." 
What is " butyric acid ?" W»4>ster descril)es it as "an acid found iu 
butter; an oily, limpid fluid, having the smell of rancid butter, and au 
acrid taste, with a sweetisli after-taste like that of ether." 

Mr. Boysen, it would seem, joins Mr. Xathan, in giving the lie to 
Professoi- Wheeler. It does seem as if the great Patent ( )tflce migiit be 
in better business than granting patents to men for such an abominable 
luixtuie as is described above— the conversion of soaj) into butter by 
means of an acid obtained from rancid butter. There is no "-"^o i)er 
cent." of pure creamery butter here, or even an ounce of butter, cream, 
milk, or even buttermilk. Nothing but fat, water, l)icarbonate of soda, 
and butyric acid. 

I'atent No 26583:5, granted to Henry Lanfertz, of New York, October 
10, 1882, consists of treating ten gallons milk with six ounces prepared 
sal-soda and 200 ]iounds oleomargarine oil, with 8 oui.ces [)repared sal- 
soda, then chuining them together with coloring nmtter. The cost of 
this mixture would be about as follows : 

10 gallons milk, at 4 cents ))er quart |1 <'0 

20U ])onnds oleomargarine oil, at (i cents per pound 12 00 

14 ounces ]irepared sal-s"da. say 14 

Coloring matter 26 

Total cost 14 00 

As the ])rei)aied sal-soda thickens the milk so that when churned with 
the oil there can be little, if any, loss in weight, the added ingredients 
should weigh about 'M)0 pounds, making the cost, exclusive of labor, 
about 4| cents ])er ]»ound. Where is the "35 per cent, of pure cream- 
ery butter" our butterine friends say so nnch about! It (lon'i appear 
here. It sh Id be stated that Mr. Lonfeiiz was granted a patent for 
making oleomargarine on the 19th of September. 1882, in which he 
seemed to think he had reached the climax of perfection in the making 
of artificial butter, but in twenty-one days new light downed upon him, 
the residt of which was the birth of the inventi(»n I have cited. 

Patent No. 173591 was granted to Garrett Cosine, of New York, Feb- 
ruary 15, 1870. Mr. Cosine makes a bid for immortality by presenting 
to a wondering wojld the following: 

"My invention," he says, "relates to the manufacture of butter for 
table use from oleine and margarine, as obtained froni animal fats, fruits, 
and vegetable nuts, with lactic a<;id and lopi)ered cream or milk." 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 39 

After jriving his process for obtaining oleomargarine oil, wbich lie calls 
No. 1, Mr. Cosine proceeds as follows: 

To obtain the vegetable oleine and margarine I nse any of tlie following articles of 
-commerce, viz: Oil jieannts, oil sweet almonds, and oil of olives. To prodnce the 
lactic acid I take 14 jiarts cane sngar, GO parts water, 4 parts caseine, and f) )iart8 
•chalk. This mixtnre is kept at a temi)eratiire of SO to i).') Fahrenheit for eight or ten 
days, or nntil it becomes a crystalline ])aste of lactate time. Tliis is pressed in a 
€loth, dissolved in hot water, and tiltered. Tlie solution is then concentrated by 
separation. The acid is <d>taiued from the lactate by treating it with the equiva- 
lent fniantity of snlphnric acid, and tiltering from the insoluble gypsum. Tlie st)hi- 
tion of lactic acid I make as follows: One dram of lactic aciil and 16 oiinces water. 
The solution of lactic acid assisis digestiou ; it jtrevents the product from becom- 
ing deteriorated hefoi'e use, and it assists also in giving the j»roduct a l)nlyraceous 
c<msisten(ry. By the use of lactic acid all putrefaction and catalytic acti-m is arrested, 
which action would take place if such acid were not added, and by this means there 
is piepared an article which is fit for use at any time and which will preserve its orig- 
inal state and flavor. To obtain the loppered cream or milk, I take the cream as ob- 
tained from the surface of milk or milk as obtained from the cow, and place it iu 
ojten ve-sels, and allow it tf) remain until the putrefaction and catalytic action has 
taken i)lace. When in this state it will be leady for use. To manufacture hutterfor 
table nse in winter I take V ))arts oleine, one part fruit or nut oil, I part solutiDu lac- 
tic acid, 1 ]>art lop])ere«l cream or milk. I then cause the same to l)e rapidly agitated 
with a rev(dving skeleton l>e.afer, nntil the whole assumes the consistency of butter, 
after which ad<l coloring nuitter, and salt to taste, &c. 

Tlie proportion of lo{)pere(l cream or milk in this cotnpound is oulyl 
in 1-J, and that sum 11 i)roi)ortioii is in a putrid condition. In fact, the 
whole concern would seem to be in a condition of putrefaction, which, 
According to the inventor, is only arrested by the use of lactic acnd, 
" which action would take place if such acid were not added." There 
is no " 35 i)er cent, of pure creamery butter" in this mixture, but itcon- 
taius not only lactic acid but sulphuric acitl. Mr. Cosinetakes his place 
by the side of Mr. Nathan and Mr. Boysen in arraigning Protessur 
Wheeler as certifying lalsely when he said no acids were ever used iu 
the manufacture of oleomargarine. 

I might go on through the whole list of jiatents before me, but think 
I have cited enough to show that pure butter, cream, or milk have but 
very little to do with any of the jtatents for imitation butter. Only 
two among all the patents before me make any allusion to butter. Eveu 
the great Mege, the father of oleomargarine, used only 10 per <;ent. of 
<ireaui or milk, and it the btitter is to be ])reserved, he says. " It will be 
better to mix the oleomargarine at animal heat with 10 per cent, of its 
weight of water instead of milk or cream." Mr. Mege uses in his in- 
vention, which was sold to the United States Dairy Company under 
patent No. 8424, dated September 24, 1878, the following ingredients, 
viz: Oleomargarine oil, 10 per cent, of cream, milk, or water, sulphate 
of soda, stomach of pig or sheep, biphosphate of lime, cow's udder, 
and bicarbonate of soda. 

It may be that the National Butterine Association, now located iu 
our great Center Market, as they claim, are selling butterine composed 
of 35 per cent, of pure creamery butter. If so, it is not made from the 
formula of any i)atent on file in the United States Patent Otlice. It is 
no exaggeiation to say that not one-tenth of the imitation butter sold 
in this country to day or exported contains one })article of ])nre butter. 
It is made up from all kinds of grease which is generally rendered into 
oil in soaj) factories, shii)ped away to the great cities, and i)urchasediii 
■ojieu market by the manufacturers of bogus butter, as many of them 
state in their api)lications for patents. 

The anonymous little books which are being left at every house in 
the District seem to be a compilation of mijirepresenration, bold false- 
hood, and slanders of the hard working industrious men and women 



40 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

who aio engaged in tbe dairy business of this country. The oool im- 
pudence and insolence of tliese men who, after having run the gauntlet 
of the law by selling their counterfeit goods here as genuine for seven 
yeais, and who now that they see Congress acting in the matter, have 
boldly hoisted ui> their black tlag over the Center Market, is astounding. 

It seems a little singular that the Washington Market Company 
sLould allow these counterfeit goods to be sold in the nuirket in compe- 
tition with pure goods, and against men who have been jtaying rent to 
the c<impany ever since its organization. It is true that if thi se bogus 
articles are to be sold it is best that they be sold under their true name, 
if we can tell what that name is. Who knows of what the.^e goods as 
made to day are comi>osed ? We only have the word of the seller as to 
tbe ingredients of what he is selling. The certiticaies of learned pro- 
fes.'-ors amount to nothing. They have not examined the butterine be- 
ing sold in this city to-day. It may be made from the fat of ma<l dogs 
for all they know. Neither do the makers of butterine know of what 
their nmterial is composed if they buy their oil in open market. They 
may not intentionally use anything wiong, and yet be using the vilest 
material. If Cdunteifeit tood is to be sold in the Center Market, why 
not allow couiiterleit money to be sold there? The dealer in bogus coin 
niiglit get a few ])roressors to certify tliat his money is composed of 65 
per cent, of jiure cop])er and ^5 {»er cent. ])nre gold, with a little color- 
ing matter to give it the color of pure gold. Then he might \)ut a sign 
ov» r his phueon which he might ])aint in big letters "Prejudice is a 
thief and will i-ob you of many good things and dollars." No doubt 
prejudice against jjassing (counterfeit money, combined with fear, has 
deprived many a man of good things and dollars. Some very good peo- 
ple say that tliey can see no objection to selling bogus butter so long as 
it is sold for what it is. There is the trouble. No one can tell what it is. 
Tbe counterfeiter might say the same "What harm in selling counterfeit 
money so long as 1 tell people what it is?" Such a man would \ ery 
soon find the strong arm of the Government hold of him. The Goveru- 
ment is very watchlul over its (;oins and justly so, but when it comes to 
tbe question of adulteiated or counterfeit ibtid on which the people are 
being swindled, it is slow to act. 

It is amazing that Congress should have so long failed to act in this 
matter. Th. making of any article of bogus food and the selling of the 
same, whether by its true name or not, should be i)rohibited by law. 
Congress cieaily has the right to pass such a law under that section of 
tbe Constitution authorizing it "to i)rovide for the general welfare." 
Things have come to a pretty ]»ass if the i)eople have no power to ])re- 
vent soaj) grease being palmed upon them for butter. 

It should be made a penal offense for an> hotel, boai ding-house, or 
restauiant to set before their guests imitation butler or to use it for 
cooking purposes, as is being done in this city to-day. More than one 
( ongiessman eats butterine every day. Those hotels who do not use 
tbe vile stuff in any way owe it to themselves and their guests to come 
out with a card to the public aL-d say so. In traveling these days, one 
is in constant anxiety on this subject. Many will not touch butter when 
traveling, from fear of being imposed upon by tbe counterfeit article. 

In conclusion. I wouhl say that I have no personal feeling in this 
matter towaids any one. I know none of the manufacturers and but 
few of the dealers in bogus butter. 1 am sorry to see so many respect- 
able men engaged in such disrei)utable business. I will not deal in bo- 
gus butter, and intend to do all in my power to prevent others from 
making it or selling it. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 41 

There are two or tUree other ])oint.s which, if there is time, I would 
like to call attention to. In regard to the exports of oleomargarine. I 
noticed in taking up a New York paper a day or two ago, what sur- 
prised me, that in one manifest there were one hundred and ten pack- 
ages of oleo oil imported into this country. It seemr it is ex[)orted as 
butterine and iini>orted here as oleo now. 

In regard to hotels, boarding houses, and restaurants in this city, I 
find oleomaigaiine is used every wln're, and I have been utterly surprised 
in sending men aiound to the hotels in this city with the report brought 
back of their finding butterine in the store rooms which was used for 
cooking ])urposes. They <lo not adndt that they use it on the table. I 
will just relate one instance that came under my notice. The other day 
a lady who kee])s a boarding house on F street came to m,\ store. I had 
sold her some old dairy butler at 2a cents a pound. She came back and 
wanted another h)t of it. My old butter was gone, and I said to her, 
"1 have some fine New York dairy butter (it was just before the fall in 
the i)rice of butter) that I can sell you for 33 cents." She would not 
pay any such i)rice and said she was buying the best l)utter for 25 
cents. I showed her the quotations, but it did not do any good. A 
gentleman who had a jiackage of this so-called New York butter sent it 
over to me and I had sent a sample to Professor Taylor to analyze, aud 
he ])ronouiiced it a very poor sample of butterine. 1 called this lady's 
attention to that butter, and said, "Perliaps this will suit you." She 
tasted the butter and said 1 might send it to her house if I would sell it 
for 25 cents. I then tohl her it was nothing but the poorest kind of 
buttei ine, and that I could sell her that and ujake fifteen cents a pound 
on it, while on the other butter I only got my commission of U cents a 
pound. She di<l not thank me for the inibrmation, but went away and 
did not buy any buttei'. That is what we liave to contend with here. 

There is another matt(M' that has not been called to the attention ot 
the committee, I think, and that is where this oleomargarine oil is now 
made. It is notorious that it is made in soap factories. A few weeks 
ago a Pittsburgh house sent to a gentleman in my care a sample of soap 
and a sam])le of buttei ine. It staid there in my place; he did not take 
it away. Letters came there for him, and finally 1 notified the man to 
send somebody there to take it away. What did he dot He wrote me 
a sarcastic letter, saying that he knew it was of no use to talk to me, 
he knew how I stood; but he would make a iiresent of the butterine^ 
and I would do well to eat it ; that it was better food than I was ac- 
custonie<l to eat, he thought, and I had better use the soap to keei) my- 
self clean. That was the reply I iecei\'ed from him. Now, right here 
in this cit.v there is a soaj> factory trying out this grease for which they 
pay 2 and 2i cents a iKUiiid, and shipi)ing it away. Now, the butchers 
will tell you that they deliver them in tlie summer season suet that is 
all alive with maggots, and that it is actually put in and tried out there. 

There is another matter more serious than this, and that is this dead 
animal business. Formerly they were buried, but now proposals are 
invited, and they are auctioned oft' every year to the lowest bidder. The 
man who gathers up the dead animals, the dead dogs and mad dogs in 
with the rest, whenever they have a dog killing they send him notice 
ami he goes and gets the dogs. He told me that himself. He takes 
them to his l)oiling establishment and skins the dogs and all the other 
animals, sells the hides, and sells the bones for fertilizers, and the 
grease is all tried out ami barreled up and shii)ped away and sold to 
dealers in grease in other cities. I asked him if he put any special 
mark on it, and he said he did not; that it looked well and smelt as 



42 IMITATION DAIRY PR(3DUCTS. 

■well as any other grease. ]S"ow', what becomes of the grease ? Who 
knows but what it finds its way back here as bntterine ? Where does it 
goto? There is the difticulty with this question. We do not know 
what this article is made of. They say in tln^ market that it is made of 
such a per cent, of pure butter and so much suet. But you will find if 
you read these patents 1 have spoken of that most of them say that 
they take oleomargjuine oil, whi(;h is now a commer(;ial article, which 
can be obtained in any city, and combine it with other things so that 
we cannot tell what tiiey are really using, and do not know anything 
about it. They take that oleomargarine oil to tlieir factory and manip- 
ulate it and tlavor it and then shi]) it to us as bntterine. 

Dr. THOMAS TAYLOR, Microscopist ot the Department of Agri- 
culture, addressed the committee. 

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, about ten years ngo I accidentally be- 
came acquainted with the fact that boiled butter on the cooling became 
crystalized. I observed its general ap[)earance with the micioscope at 
that time, but failed to look into it very closely as to its s ructute. But 
sometime after that, the oleomargarine business (;ame up, ivnd it became 
necessary for me to make a close examination of the subject of both as 
to the general character of butter and oleomargarine. I was called 
upon by the oleomargarine j^eople in Baltimore frequently to give 
analyses of their ))roduct to ascertain its condition. They were very 
anxious to show that it was a pure article. Th y brought me many 
samples of it. and 1 assured them at that time that it was full of the 
tissues of animals, bloodxessels, and other filthy material. They were 
very much surprised at this, but acknowledged it was so. They after- 
wards, by more careful manipulation, by taking and skimming ott' and 
leaving in the tanks about 2 inches of the settlings, were able to get 
pretty well lid ot these coarse materials. They then made it so very 
fine that they sui)posed they could deceive me, and really it was a very 
difticult thirrg to defiru^ the difference betweeir oleomargarine and but- 
ter just for a little while. But two samples were sent up from the Com- 
mittee on Labor of the House to Commissioirer Le Due to see if I could 
decide what the substance was, whether butter or oleomargarine. I 
was not informed at the time where the material came from. I simply 
received a little paper from Commissioner Le Due on which the words 
"buttei' or oleomargarine" were writterr. I then found I was in a criti- 
cal position, because it was a test of my skill. 1 had said before this 
that I could at all times decide between oleonrargarine aird butter. But 
here was a case in which of coui'se my very official head, 1 might say, 
depended upon my correct diagnosis of the thirrg. I gave it a full con- 
sideration, and concluded to test it in this way. I attached a prism 
under the microscope here [indicating] and another prism over it, aird 
by putting some of the butler itr position 1 found 1 had an exhibition of 
all the (iolors in the rainbow — that is. the juismatic colors. 1 also knew 
that ])oor butter would not show the prismatic color's, as the oils in it 
have not the power to give these i)rismatic colors. I reasorred this mat- 
ter out first before I comrrrenced my exi>eriments, and, after i)r'eparing 
for them, I found I had instantly, as I supposed I would have, two sam- 
ples of the colors of the rainbow. I had more than that ; 1 had the crys- 
tals of the respective fats of which it was made. I fourrd it was made 
of beef fat — at that time they were using beef fat — and that the crystals 
of beef fat were well defined. 1 also found that the beef fat cr-ystals 
looked like l)eautiful flowers in a group ; whereas pur-e butter w^hich has 
been boiled will show a St. Andrew cross on ever^y crystal, and after a 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 43 

time we will get a crystal, in the center of which i.s a body of a roseate 
character, and this roseate character will float off, and the entire held 
will be covered with this roseate or similar color. Those are the char- 
acteristics which belong to pure butter. This is iio exaggeration at all. 
The colors are just as beautiful as they (;an be. 

Swine's fat, of which bntterine is niad^, is composed of a star-like 
object, is blue at the top and bottom, and red at the side. 

(Dr. Taylor then exhibited to the committee some enlarged diagrams 
showing the location of these vaiious colors, and continued :) 

If upon an examination through the microscope 1 find the material 
contains a crystal of that character [indicating], I say it is a beef crystal, 
and if, on the other hand the crystal is of this description [indicating], I 
know it is a butter crystal. These cases are frequently submitted to me, 
and I am called ujyoii to give my opinion before courts and juries, and 
the result in every case has been a conviction on the e\idence I have 
been able to give; and it is remarkable that in every case the parties 
themselves have acknowledged that the evidence I gave was C( rrect ; 
that they knew they were selling these counterfeit comjumnds for butter. 

The chairman asked a question of one of the speakers, if there was any 
oleomargarine made in Canada. 

I have received a letter from the assistant secretary of agriculture on 
that very subject. There is no oleon)argarine manufactured in Canada, 
but there is a company being formed, with a capital stock of $500,000, at 
the ]>resent time, witii the expectation of manutacturing it. There has 
been a discussion in the Canadian Parliament ui)on this subject, and I 
think a tax is ])roposed of 10 cents a ])Ound by one side, ami a lesser tax 
by the other side, and it wouhl certainly seem as though they were going 
to in pose a tax upon that produ(*t. 

The Chairman. I wish you would state whether you have made any 
experiments or have any knowledge in regard to the healtlitubiess or 
unhealthfulness of these various compounds, and the i)Ower of the stom- 
ach to digest and assimilate them. 

Dr. Taylor. In regard to that, it is laid down in our medical books, 
in all the standard works, that solid fars are less digestible than butter. 
Buttei', however, may be called a solid fat, inasmuch as it stands up or 
doe's not fall down like oil, but it is a product, an oil, and when placed 
under the n icroscope, it is transparent, not translucent. Before a fat 
of a solid character is absorbed into the system it has to be dissolved 
in the digestion by the action of the bile, by which the fat is converted 
into a soa]), and in this condition it is absorbed. But it cannot be ab- 
sorbed until it has passed through that conditicm. That is evident 
from the fact that nature supplies oil globules in milk. Persons who 
have weak digestive powers, such as elderly persons, cannot of course 
supply that amount of digestive solvent to dissolve the fats that might 
be necessary. One thing is certain, that in the case of oil, it is absorbed 
without any chemical agency. It is v^ery evident that pure butter is 
much more digestible. In fact, you may say, it is uot digested at all, 
but is absorbed as i)ure oil at once into the tissues of the body. With 
regard to bacteria, it is laid down by the most scientific authoriry, that 
it consists of vegetable s])ores, and they are no doubt in some form or 
other in every substance that is undergoing decomposition. There are 
certain contagious spores found in the fats of swine, and doubtless in 
the fats of dogs in the case of rabies; but what the effect of those 
may be upon the human system has not yet been develo))ed. For my 
own i)art, from my knowledge of the nature of bacteria, which is one of 
the constant studies of microscopists, I would be afraid to take an oleo- 



44 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

margarine made from the fat of animals — say of bogs which have died 
from liog cliolera — for this reason, that it is a matter of importance to 
those who manufactnre oleomargarine and butterine to melt their fats 
at the lowest i)0ssible tem]>eratnre. They told me at Baltimore, where 
they were mannfiictiiring oleomargarine, that it was important for them 
and a necessity to melt (jiot boil) their fats at the lowest temperature, 
because when the temperature got iiigh it gave it an odor which they 
could not get nd of, and tlien they had to sell it to tallow chandlers to 
make caudles of. With regard to butterine they do luit boil it, but 
melt it at a temperature of 104, and combine it with fats which are 
heate<l and mixed up in that condition. If they boiled it I could de- 
tect it at once under the microscope, as it would show the cross of Saint 
Andrew upon the ciystals of butter. So that there is no evidence what- 
soever that it is ever boiled or brought to a high temperature, even 
to 212 degrees, which woidd destroy the bacteria. It is found that 
bacteria is not destroyed at a tempeiature of less than 212 degiees, and 
even then there is-no certainty of the destruction of bacteria unless that 
temperature of 212 degrees is (jontiuued foi' several hours. It is found 
that the gelatine in wliich the bacteria are cultivated will become con- 
taminated by putting into them a tinid which has been boiled, contain- 
ing bacteria boiled but a short tiuje. So that you have to keei) it in 
even for hours to be sure that there is no contamination. 

The Chairman. It would not be i)ossibl(% tiien, to destroy them in 
the manner in which it is i)rei>ared, so that it could not be transmitted 
from animals into the human s.ystem ? 

Dr. Taylor. No, sir. In tyjihoid fever, all medical men agree that 
the sjjores clonic from drinking water containing the typhoid germs. 
There are certain other contagH)ns diseases that may be taken into the 
system by the breath, and it is necci-sary in others to obtain them 
throuiih inoculation. You might swallow nuniy infectious forms of 
sjiores along with your food without doing harm. But there are others 
again, like typhoid fever, which are communicated by drinking water. 
You may go into a room or hospital where typlioid fever is and remain 
there for weeks without injury, and cannot possibly take the disease. 
But if you should drink water in that room, you would be very apt> to 
contract the disease; while in another contagious disease you might 
drink water under the same circumstances and it would not aifect you, 
because in that case it requires to come in contact witli the injury and 
to be absorbed in the system in that way. 

The Chairman. Your statement, then, would lead to the (;onclusion 
that the use of these comjtounds would be very injurious to children, or 
to ])eople who are diseased or weak in constitution ? 

l)r. Taylor. I have no doubt of it that it is not a pro])er food for 
them. It is a subject which has not been discussed in that light. I 
was invited to the Academy of Sciences in I*hiladeli)hia to attend a 
lecture on the subject of butter and fats, and Dr. Hunt, at the close of 
the lecture, spoke to me on the same matter and agreed with nie that 
it was not a proi)er food. 

Senator George. Are you a medical exjiert, a doctor of medicine? 

Dr. Taylor. lam. 

Senator Georgk. Have you ever known of any injury done to any 
one by the use of oleomargarinef 

Dr. Taylor. No, sir. 

Senator George. It is a ])ure theory, then, that you go on, in suppos- 
ing it to be injurious to health? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 45 

Dr. Taylor. I Lave not supi)()-sed it to be injurious; there has been 
no theory about it. I have simply been stating some facts without theo- 
rizing. I said it was possible or might be possible. 

Senat<)r George You do not assert the fact on your opinion as a 
medical expert that it would be injurious to health ? 

Dr. Taylor. Xo, sir. 

Senat(U' George. You know nothing on that subject! 

Dr. Taylor. I am speaking of bacteria. I do not make it a question 
of theory, but of fact. 

Senator George. I am speaking of oleomargarine. 

Dr. Taylor. I say it is not so digestible as butter, and 1 say that 
distinctly, and every medical man \\ iil agree to it. 

Senator George. Y^ou say it is less digestil)le "i 

Dr. Taylor. Yes. 

SeiKitor George. Is that the only ground you have for supposing 
that it would be injurious lo health ? 

Dr. Taylor. So far as supposition is concerned, I think it misht be 
injurious to health it it containcnl injuiious sjtores, beciiuse it is not 
brought to a high temperature enough to kill them. 

Senator George. You ha\e no medi(^al statistics on the subject, and 
there are none, so far as you know, to show that the use of eleomar- 
garine has proved deleterious to the health of the i)erson using it? 

Dr. Taylor. No, sir; 1 do not thiidc there are any statistics of that 
kind. 

Mr. Keall. Will the gentleman allow me to answer that (jiiestion ? 

Tlie Chairman. It is not necessary to do so at this time. The mat- 
ter will be br« light out tully before we get through with it. Dr. Tay- 
lor is telling us precisely what there is in that fat, what he has found, 
without any theory at all, simpl.N the actual facts as to what the micro- 
scoj)e shows to be contained in these fatty substances. He has not 
undertaken to offer any theories concerning it. He is telling that certain 
substances which everybody knows to be injurious are found in it. That 
is as far as his observation has gone, as I understand it. 1 will inquire 
whether there are any deleterious sul>stances found in butter injurious to 
health — I mean in good butter obtained from a country dairy. 

Dr.TAYLOH. No, there are not. 

TheCHAiiiMAN, The elements of butter are perfectly healthful, I un- 
derstand. 

Dr. Taylor. Yes, sir; 1 speak of normal butter. 

The Chairman. I understand that. I was si)eaking of butter made 
from the milk of the cow. 

Senator Blair. Let me ask you whether this bacteria from which the 
germ of disease springs is to be found ever in healthy grease that is 
taken froui the animal while living or immediately after death, from aii 
animal killed for the i)urpose by a butcher in the ordinary way! 

Dr. Taylok. Bacteria is found everywhere, in the blood of every tis- 
sue of the body. 

Senator Blair. But it is never found in good butter. 

Dr. Taylok. So lar as that is concerned, the fact is there has not 
been that investigation made with regard to butter, because it is gen- 
erally sup|>osed that butter is made from healthy cows. But in the ease 
of butterineaiid oleomargarine we do know and can testify and can give 
you evidence from Department reports that large amounts of money, 
$30,000 at a time, have been spent within the last month for the pur- 
chase of dead hogs that died of hog cholera. 

Senator Blair. That informatiou is in possession of the Department ! 



46 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Dr. Taylor. Yes, sir; and we have the information direct from the 
statistician, Mr. Dodge, that 130,000 has been })aid for tliat purpose. 
He got that information initidentally from a coriespondent. The Chair- 
man of the Committee on Agricnlture sliowed me a letter hist week 
which stated that a hirse number of sheep ha<l been drowned and the 
carcasses were bought and thf parties were watched to see wliere they 
were taken to, and it was found tliey went directly to an oleomargarine 
factory. You can also get information liom the Tieasuiy Department 
to the elfect that in the distilleries where they keep thousands of hogs 
to eat up the swill, they make up the soap grease from dead hogs which 
have died of disease, and that is sold, they say, for making axle-grease. 
But they do not know where it goes to. 1 have that from the ofhcers in 
charge, and persons who know about it. The fact is that it is sold in 
o])eu market. 

The committee then adjourned. 



Washington, D. C, Tuesday, June 15, 1886. 

The committee was called to order at 10.15 a. m. 

The Chairman. We have a quorum of the comnnttee present. The 
committee has met this morning by appointment to hear the opponents 
of the bill of the House of Kepresentatives, No. 8328, detining butter, 
also imposing a tax u[)on and regulating the manufacture, sale, impor- 
tation, and exportation of oleomargarine. A number of gentlemen from 
the West desire to be heard against this measure, and also some gen- 
tlemen trom New York City. 

Senator George. These gentlemen appear here against this measure, 
do they? 

The Chairman. Yes; they are opposed to the measure. 

Senator George. I would like to liear testimony rather than argu- 
ments. 

The Chairman. I suppose we had better let them make their state- 
ments first. 

Senator Blair. Thi- is the bill which came from the House"? 

The Chairman. Yes. 

Senator George. As there are a great many gentlemen here and we 
cannot listen to everybody, I would suggest for the consideration of 
the con'.mittee and the gentlemen present, that they select one or two of 
the most intelligent members who have been i)osted about this mat- 
aud let us examine them. I think the country wants facts now rather 
than arguments; that is my view of it; at least 1 want them. 

The Chairman. It is facts that we want, but I supi)ose the gentlemen 
desire to make their statements in their own way. 

Senator Sawyer. I think they should be allowe<l to do so. I do not 
think we should interfere in that matter. 

The ('hairman. When they have made their statements, if any gen- 
tleman desires to ask questions he can do so. 1 understand the gentle- 
men have agreed among themselves who shall speak for them. We are 
ready to hear them, and if the gentleman who desires to present this 
case wnll take his place at the end of the table, we will proceed. 

Mr. F. K. COUDERT, of New York, said: 

In behalf of some of the parties living in the East, in New York, we 
ask permission to put Prof. Henry Morton on the witness stand, if it is 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 47 

agreeable to you. May I ask, for information, wlietber tlie Senators 
will not tlieuiselves take tlie examination in their own hands ? 

The Chairman. Profossor Morton can make such statement as he de- 
sires, and, as he ]>roceed^, if any Senators desire to ask him questions, 
of course they will do so. He may make his stateme.'t in his <»\vn way 
first, if he desires to do so. 



STATEMENT OF PROF. HENRY MORTON. 

Prof. Henry Morton, of the Stevens Institute of TecliiH»h)yy, Ho- 
boken, N. .1., said : 

1 appear at the request of Mr. Coudert to state facts within niy own 
knowledge cliietly in regard to this matter, and it may not be improper 
for me to state, in the tirst i)lace, how it comes that 1 should know 
about it. 

Senator George. That is not material, if you will just tell the facts. 

Professor Morton. The subject is one which has been of great inter- 
est to all scientific men from the time of the original discovery by Mege, 
which was made, as you are aware, during the siege of Paris Many 
persons have been interested in it and have fullowe<l it uj). I have 
been frequently called u[)on to examine processes and sui)erinteiid op- 
erations where modifications in the manufacture have been snggested, 
a,nd so on, and speeiuieiis have been brought to me as a chemisr, to ex- 
amine from time to time microscopically and chemically. When the 
substance was first introduced, the question was raised as to whether it 
could be distinguished from l)utter by any test, and 1 was led in that 
way to investigate the subject, and to examine as to all the ])roperties 
which it exhibited, as well as to compare ditferent samples of it, and I 
have in my experiments in this line exainined great numbers of speci- 
mens of oleomargarine prepared as butter, and of oleomargarine oil for the 
preparation ot butter, from all parts of the country, ami also have visited 
factories very frequently and spent long- periods there. I have re- 
Djained as long- as a week in one of these factories continuously, some- 
times siiending the night as well as the day there in order to watch the 
process completely and see the operation from beginning to end — to see 
what was put in and what was not, and to observe what was done and 
what was not done. 

In the course of these examinations I have reached the conclusion, 
founded on these observations, that the material is of necessity a pure 
one, and cannot possibly be unwholesome, and is, in fact, in that sense, 
thoroughly desirable and safe article of lood. I will express as briefly 
as I can my reasons for this opinion, and state, the facts on which they 
are founded. 

In the first place, I have found, as a matter of observation, that fat 
which is to be used in the manufacture of oleomargarine, if it is in 
the slightest degree tainted before the manufacture begins, if it is not 
strictly fresh, if it is not taken almost directly Iroin the slaughtered 
animal, if it is allowed to stand in a barrel for a few hours in ordinary 
weather or in cold weather, if put in a barrel with any animal heat in 
it for a few hours, then an incii)ient change begins which, in the suc- 
ceeding- process, is exaggerated so that an utterly offensive material is 
produced which could not be used for any such purpose. 

Senator George. Ottensive to the smell and taste ? 

Professor Morton. Offensive both to the smell and taste, so much so 
that no one could eat it or endure it; it is very disagreeable. The only 



48 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

way to avoi(l that is to use extreme care iu the collection and prepara- 
tion of the material, aod in the subsequent processes, after it has been 
cleaned and washed, by meltinji- it caret'ully and then allowing it to set- 
tle and strainino" it so that all the animal liber of every sort is removed. 
It is next submitted to a treatment by which the stearine is removed, 
and what is left is almost Identically the same iu composition as butter 
made from milk and cream. Now if iu that process, after the meltiugf has 
been jione through with, the slightest i)ortion, even a u)icros(0]»ic portion, 
of the animal tissue, of the fibrous tissue, or anything else but the pure 
fat is left iu the material in \ he oil, then in this process of ci ystallizing by 
which the stearine is lemoved (which has to be done at a tem{)erature 
of about 80 degrees), the result will be tliat the material will become 
putrid and utterly offensive. 1 have seen that done over and over agaiu 
where there has been a little carelessness in the filtering or cleaning, or 
Wiint of pro|)er treatment where the fat has not been heated hot enough 
during the rendering, so that there may be a little fiber left in. Uuder 
these circumstances, during this process of crystallizing, a fermentation 
takes place which is very offensive, almost unendurable, and they have 
to throw the entire umss into the tanks used for the refuse to make 
tallow of, as it would not be food fit for use at all. 

Senator GeorGtE. Is theie no way of counteracting this offensive con- 
dition ? 

Professor Morton. No way whatever, exce|)t to take the fat and 
purify it in a manner that would make it a very expensive process. 

Senator George. Can it not be clarified ? 

Professor Morton. No, sir ; there is no way of doing that. 

The Chairman. Would putrefaction take place if the material was 
kept at a temperature of 45 decrees, the usual teuiperature for keeping 
butter f 

Professor Morton. It will not take i)lace after the butter is manu- 
factured. That putrefaction of uecessity takes place duriug the manu- 
facture. One of these ])rocesses involves the keeping of the material 
for ten or twelve hours at a temperature favorable for fermentation or 
putrefactiou if there is anything in it to putrefy. If it has gone so far 
as that without injury, it is because there is nothing iu it capable of es- 
tablishing putrefaction. 

The Chairman. Have you never fouud any of these tissues iu oIcd- 
margarine after it was manufactured, under the microscope ? 

Professor Morton. Never. This statement I make is important as 
to the effect of the process; that is, the putrefying effect whi(!h would 
lesult from a neglect to thoroughly separate the fatty matter from the 
fiber. This is iujportant because it bears upon the question which has 
been raised as to whether the geiius of disease could in any way be 
carried from the animal into the product. These germs, in the first 
place, have never been found. There is no scientific testimony any- 
where that they have ever been found in the fat of aniuuils. They are 
always found in the muscles and tissues, but never in the fat. 

Senator George. Then, the germs of disease from diseased vattle are 
never found in fatty substances f 

Professor Morton. No, sir. 

Senator Blair. You spoke of stearine; what is thatf 

Professor Morton. Stearineis one of the three constituents of all fats, 
including butter. All fats, butter, and all other animal fats, consist 
mainly of three chemical compounds, one of them stearine, another 
l»almatin, and the other olein. The stearine by itself is solid at ordinary 
temperatures and is used in the manufacture of candles. It is a hard 
fat and is very abundant in mutton fat, which shows a great deal of 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 49 

steariiie. Palmatiii is a soft fat l)y itself, very much of the consistency 
of butter, bat a little harder than butter. The third compound, olein, 
is a liquid fat at ordinary temperatures. Olive oil is nearly pure olein, 
altbough it contains traces of the other matters. Mutton fat is particu- 
larly rich in stearine, but contains relatively less of palmatiu and olein. 
Beef fat has not so mucli stearine, but more olein and palinatin. 

The process first consists in getting ri«l of the animal tissue or little 
fibers or sacks distributed through the fat by which the litrtle globules 
of oil which constitute the fat of tlie living animal are held. In the 
living animal the fat is fluid and each of the globules is inclosed in a sack 
like a bunch of gTa[)es, and that is surr mnded by the thicker fibers that 
enclose tiie mass of fat which constitutes the fat of the living animal 
When the animal dies and the body becomes cold, these little globules 
become solid. The first process is to break and cut up these masses, 
then to melt out the fat so that the fat again becomes liquid as it was in 
the living animal, and the fibrous sheathes are removed by straining. 

Senator George. The little sacks that hold the oil ? 

Professor Morton. Yes, the little sacks which hold the oil, those are 
all gotten out. It would be those which if left (being- putrescible in 
nature), which would become offensive and decompose and injure the fat 
which remains in contact with them, if ex])0sed to the temperature to 
which it would be exi)osed ordinarily, keeping it at a common tempera- 
ture. The process then consists, first, of melting the fat and getting 
this oil again in that fluid state as when the animal was alive, and theu 
bringing it to the consistency of butter fat by taking out a portion of the 
stearine which is in it. In butter there is stearine, palmatiu, and olein, 
just as in mutton fat, but there is much less stearine in proportion to the 
other two substances. Therefore to get this fat to the same consistency 
as butter, we have to take away some of its stearine. That is done by 
allowing this fatty mass to partially crystallize, keeping the temperature 
at such a ])oint that a large part of the stearine will crystallize in little 
tufts or bunches of crystals all through it, and then we have an oil 
whic^h looks just liivc olive oil, with little crystalline particles floating 
all through it which resemble white sugar. 

Senator Blair. Is stearine an unhealthy substance, that you wish to 
get rid of it ? 

Professor Morton. It is not unhealthy excei)t in this sense 

Senator Blair. I meau in the proportion in which it is found is it 
unhealthy. 

ProfessorMoRTON. It vvotdd be less digestible undoubtedly. It would 
be the difference between the digestibility of butter or a fat like butter 
and tiintton fat. As it exists in the mutton fat, there being an excess 
of stearine, the fat is harder when it enters the stomach, and is not 
broken up so readily and absorbed by the digestive organs. In that 
sense it is less digestible, just as one kind of bread would be less whole- 
some thaii another because not so digestible. Very light bread would 
be more digestible than bread not so light. There would be that dif- 
ference. A person with a delicate stomach might be able to eat beef 
and beef fat and yet not be able to eat mutton and mutton fat. There 
would be a difference of that sort. By allowing this melted fat to crys- 
tallize out this excess of the stearine, there is produced an emulsion, a 
matter of about the consistency of half-melted snow, and that is put in 
canvas bags, which are pressed, and by that means the fluid parts are all 
driven out and the stearine is left in solid cakes, which are taken away 
and sold to candle manufacturers or others. The liquid or fluid part 
then has almost identically the composition of butter; that is to say, it 
17007 OL 4 



50 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Las in it now Just tlie same proportion of steiirine, palraatiii, and olein 
which exists iii rejjuhir dairy butter. There is, however, in butter, in 
addition to these, about 5 per cent, of a peculiar fat which is found only in 
butter, and which is known as butyrine. There are, besides bnryrine, in 
butter very small qnantities, less than 1 per cent, altogether, of caprin, 
caproin, and caprylin, and two or three other similar bodies, which are 
also found in minnte quantities in mutton fat, goat's fat, and so on. 
The}' are extremely minute in quantity and contribute only a little 
towards the flaA'or of butter. The tiavor of butter is due to the presence, 
first, of butyrine, which has a slight Mavor of its own. 

Senator George. And which is fouiul only in butter? 

Professor Morton. Yes; that is a fat peculiar to butter. Butyric 
acid is found in vegetables sometimes, but butyrine is found only in milk 
and consequently in butter. Caprylin has a slight flavor also There is 
in butter some caseine or cheesy matter or albuminous matter related 
to the white of eggs, though of course ditterent in other respects, and 
that also gives a flavor to butter, although being very easily decom- 
posed when butter is to be kept for a long time, it is the effort of the 
manufacturer to get rid of it as much as possible. You have probably 
come across what is known as cheesy butter. That may be the case with 
fresh butter kept only a few days if it has not been well worked. The 
working of the butter gets rid of this caseine which otherwise remains 
in the milk from which the white cheese comes — " smear case" it is called 
in the markets about Philadelphia. Ordinary cheese contains a large 
l)roportion of caseine, but it is worked out of the butter after the butter 
is churned, working with a la<lle, washing it with water, and so on. The 
presence of the caseine in these fatty substances is undoubtedly in part 
the cause of the peculiar characteristic taste, just as the presence of some 
of these particular things gives a flavor to mutton fat and when in ex- 
cess (as in goat fat and goat meat) one which is not admired ; in fact an 
extra mutton flavor. In this way, then, the oleomargarene comes to be, 
as I have said already, almost identical with butter. There is a differ- 
ence in these flavoring matters to a small extent, the maximum being 
X)erhaps a little over 5 per cent, found in butter which are not found in 
the oleo oil. 

The oleomargarine oil, as I have so far described it, is not yet in a 
condition exactly resembling butter as regards its structure; that is, it 
is a fluid which, when allowed to cool, becomes a solid which is homo- 
geneous tljroughout; it is a compact mass of fat. 

Senator Georoe. Is that altogether from the beef fat ? 

Professor Morton. Yes, from the beef fat. Oleomargarine is made 
from beef fat. There is a difference in this respect from butter ; butter 
is made from minute fat globules existing in cream which, by the action 
of churning,' have been hammered together until the minute globules 
adhere to each other and make larger globules, and the^' are packed to- 
gether and soliditted, making an emulsion. You are familiar with that 
in salad dressing. You take oil and vinegar and mix them together and 
make a i)asty mass. In the same way cream is an emulsion of minute 
globules of fat with little films around them of the watery portion of the 
milk which contains a little sugar of milk, caseine, albumen, and so on. 
When the churning is done to the cream it puts these little particles to- 
gether and the same ])rocess may be accomi)iished by grinding instead of 
churning. You may make butter by putting the i)articles through a mill 
and rubbing them together until they adhere and form larger ones, and 
then by squeezing out thefluid portion yon get ordinary' butter. But but- 
ter, however, is an emulsion. It consists of particles of fatty material with 
little intei stices between tbem. To get oleomargarine into the same con- 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 51 

clitioii so that it could be used as an article of food with equal comfort, 
the structure must be broken up in a similar way. To do that this ole- 
omargarine oil is put into a churn with a quantity of sour milk or cream, 
such as we use in the manufacture of butter. The milk for this purpose, 
as in making butter, must be sour. You could not make good butter 
with fresh milk, neither can you oleomargarine. The whole of the milk 
is taken except that instead of skimming the cream off the milk and 
bringing that together with a certain amount of sour milk left with it, 
the whole of the sour milk, cream and all, is placed in the churn with an 
appropriate amount of this oleomargarine oil and a little harmless color- 
ing matter, exactly the same coloring matter that is used sometimes in 
making butter. 

Senator George. What is the coloring matter which is generally 
used ? 

Professor Morton. It is sometimes saffron and sometimes annatto. 
The}^ are both vegetable coloring matters which are entirely harmless, 
the same as cochineal which is used for coloring confectionary. They 
are perfectly harmless coloring matters and have been used for ages. 

Senator Georoe. It is put in for the purpose of affecting the appear- 
auce of the butter ? 

Professor Morton. It is put in to give a color resembling that of 
certain varieties of butter, just as they put it in butter at certain sea- 
sons of the year. 

Senator George. Dairymen use the same coloring matters'? 

Professor Morton. Yes; just the same. Sometimes the dairymen 
pursue a little different plan by api)lying the color through the cow. 
They do it by feeding the cow on carrots or some other colored material, 
and Ihey can get the color in that way. But however it is done makes 
no difference. It produces a color which pleases the consumer, and it 
has no effect one way or the other, makes it no better or worse. 

The material having to be brought into this condition, a mechanical 
process, the churn, is set going and does exactly the opposite to what 
it does with the cream. In the case of churning the cream the object 
of the churning is to mash the litile particles together and make the 
small ones larger, so that they would be sufficiently large to pack to- 
gether and squeeze out the mass of aqueous liquid and make a solid 
emulsion. In the case of oleomargarine oil the object is to break up 
the homogeneous mass of oil into minute particles, to emulsionate it the 
same as you would do in making a salad dressing. You put certain 
things in a salad dressing to make an emulsion which, if of sufficiently 
hard substances, would become solid like butter. But this in the salad 
dressing never becomes hard. The oleomargarine is well beaten up, and 
when beaten to the right extent, so that it is thoroughly emulsified, it 
is then poured out on ice, so as to cool it quickly and not give time for 
the particles to run together or crystallize, as they might do from their 
melted condition, which would give it a granula character. Under 
these circumstances we get an article which contains, from the sour 
milk and cream used in it, a portion of this very butyrine, and this 
and caproin, and so on, and casein found in butter. But there is not 
as large a proportion as there would be in natural butter, of course. 
Instead of there being 5 per cent, there is not probably more than 1 per 
cent, as a rule. 

Senator George. The object of that churning is to get the butyrine 
and casein ? 

Professor Morton. Yes; and to reduce the homogeneous fat to a 
fatty emulsion ; that is to say, the minute particles separated by little 



52 liMITATION DAIRY PRODUC'I S. 

layers ot an aqueons fluid, to reproduce the natural condition of butter. 
In other words, if it were not for that it would be like melted bntter. 
If you melt butter and allow it to cool again (which is often done to 
preserve it because melted butter will deposit the casein, which will all 
settle in a layer), you can thus get the pure butter fat, which will keep 
longer in a warm climate. But when you come to eat that butter so 
pi"epared you will find it is not so pleasant to the taste; it has not the 
softness ot ordinary butter. It has a sort of hardness and a lack of this 
plastic condition which makes it agreeable. Therefore, to make the 
oleomargarine likeunmelted butter, it is necessary to churn it to break 
it up into these minute particles ; or, to describe it in a word, to produce 
a solidified er:uilsion. 

The Chairman. At what staye of the process — I do not think you have 
told us that — is the milk, cream, sour milk, or butter mixed with the 
oleomargarine? 

Professor Morton. In the act of churning. 

The Chairman. What is it put in for? 

Professor Morton. It is i)ut in for the purpose of enabling us to 
convert a homogeneous mass of fat into an emulsion of minute particles 
of fat with little layers between them of aqueous liquid, which it gets 
from the milk. 

The Chairman. Is that the only object of using pure milk and cream 
in connection with it? 

Professor Morton. And ro give it also the flavor of butter. That is 
where the flavor comes in. 

Senator George. You get the butyrine then ? 

Professor Morton. You get some butyrine and all the other flav^oriug 
matters, and some casein. You get enough casein, and butyrine, and 
so on, to give it a fair butter flavor, not a rich flavor. Oleomargarine 
never compares with rich fine butter, l)ut is superior to strong or disa- 
greeable butter, because it has no bad flavor. 

The Chairman. What is the object of giving it a butter flavor ? 

Professor Morton. The object is to make it palatable. 

The CiiAiRMAiN. Taken as pure oleomargarine, then, it would not be 
jialatable or salable ? 

Professor Morton. Oh, I think it would be. But it is more palat- 
able, and of course more salable when it is more |)alatable. 

The Chairman. That is when it is made more like butter. 

Professor Morton. Yes; like butter or something that we are used 
to. In other words, our tastes depend very much on habit, and if we 
had been brought up to eat marrow instead of butter, or if marrow were 
the common food, then it would be undoubtedly desirable, in preparing 
a fresh ai"ti(;le for consumption, to iiiake it something like what the peo- 
ple were using and tasting, for the a[)petite seeks what it is accustomed 
to in these things rather than a new thing for which a taste is to be 
acquired. 

The (Chairman. Then you think an appetite could be created for pure 
oleomargarine ? 

Professor Morton. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. You have been telling us about the fat of beef cattle 
used in making oh'omargarine. Did you make any investigation of 
those establishments where large percentages of lard are used in the 
manufacture of butterine ? 

Professor Morton. I have; I have also seeu those. The difference 
is simply this, that at the time when the materials are put in the churn 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 53 

there is mixed with the oleomargarine, strictly speaking, a certain 
amount of lard 

Senator George. Thus far you have been talking about the manu- 
facture of oleomargariue from beef fat exclusively f 

Professor Morton. Yes; that is the first. I am giving it clirouolog- 
ically. 

Senator George. Is the complete product ever made without the in- 
troduction of lard "? 

Professor Morton. Yes ; it is made without the introduction of lard. 

The Chairman. That was the intention of tlie Mege patent! 

Professor Morton. Y>s; tliat wits the original idea ; but when it came 
to be used extensively it was found that consumers objected to it, es- 
pecially at some seasons of the year, in that there was a lack of the pe- 
culiar stickiness, if you might call it so, of butter; that it was a little 
more granular. It would break ; in cutting, it would fracture ; and in 
eating it there was not exactly the same smoothness that is found in 
butter. It was tound that by adding a certain proportion of lard, that 
this gi eater smoothness was given to it, and accoidingly it became 
common in manj^ places — I do not know that it is universal at the jueseut 
day — especially in the winter, to add a certain proportion of lard which 
had been prepared in substantially the same way, with proper care as 
to its purity, and fcr the same reason that the slightest carelessness 
utterly ruins the product. If the fat from the pig is allowed to stand 
any length of time and get in the slightest degree sour, or is not treated 
M'ith extreme care and cleanliness, and the whole ])rocess conducted with 
scrupulous care, with uothing offensive left about, it is utterly ruined. 
It has been found that all fat has a wonderful property of absorbing 
odors of various kinds. Many of you are doubtless familiar with that 
fact. You cannot lea\e food with it in a small place in close proximity, 
without its acquiring the smell. If a ])at of butter is pu tin a refrigerator 
alongside of a herring, and you take it out an hour afterwards, and eat 
it, you will think you are eating herring. 

It is the same way with fruits. If you put butter in a refrigerator 
with a basket of strawberries, in a sboit time it will liave a strong 
strawberry flavor. IVlany of our delicate perfumes are extracted in that 
way. The pure fat is spread in layers and then the leaves of flowers 
are s])read over it and allowed to remain for some time, then they are 
taken away and other leaves are spread m the same manner aiul the 
fatty substance will absorb the odor of the flowers. When the fat so 
charged with the smell of these delicate flowers, like lieliotroi)e, gera- 
nium, &c., w hich cannot be extracted in any other w ay, is treated with 
alcohol which washed out from the fat all these delicate essences, and 
this alcohol is used to make the fine perfumes, such as jockey club, »&c., 
which we buy in bottles, are produced in that way, the flavoring having 
been absjjrbed by the fat and then again taken out by the ali ohol. That 
indicates how delicate a substance fat is when exposed to anything un- 
clean or offensive. 

The Chairman. Will you explain to the committee the difference, 
scientifically, between the fat of the hog and the fat of the beef? 

Professor Morton. Scientifically there is just the same difference as 
tbere is between beef and mutton fat. The fat of mutton contains a 
great deal of stearine comi)ared with the other compounds. Beef fat 
contains an intermediate proportion, and hog's fat a greater proportion 
of palmatin and olein. Otherwise they are identical, excei)t that in 
each case there is a very minute quantity of different flavoring sub- 
stances, a matter which has never been thoroughly studied or examined 



54 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

into. I do not know exactly what it is, it is in sucli niinnte quantities, 
but it enables ns in raw fats, by the smell, to tell which one it is. But 
it is almost like the ]ieifnme of the flower — evanescent. Otherwise all 
fats are the same, or diiier only in the proportion of those three ingre- 
dients. 

The Chairman. In the manufacture of oleomargarine, the stearine, 
you say, is nearly all extracted. 

Professor Morton. A considerable amount of it is extracted. 

The Chairman. If so, and the result is that it is firmer and harder 
than that which is produced when a large auiount of lard is used, why 
is it necessary to use lard in order, as you say, to soften the material ? 
Why is not the result of the stearine when oleomargarine is inade as 
full and comjdete as from lard ! 

Professor Morton. For two reasons: First, it appears by this pro- 
cess, in the ])ractical way of working it (we might if we could work at 
it with a great deal of time and care, but not in practical work), we can- 
not get the stearine out as perfectly as would be necessary to bring it 
down to the consistency of butter. There is too much stearine left in. 
I had no intention of saying it was all removed; that would be incor- 
rect. The proportion of stearine left is quite a large one. But the in- 
tention is to remove it so as to get it down to the consistency of butter ; 
but that intention cannot be practically carried oat, and the oleomar- 
garine oil as prepared contains a little stearine above that of butter, 
and the addition of lard corrects this. It also appears that there may 
be slight difference in the ultimate structure of the fat globules, in their 
physical structure, by reason of which one of them is more tacky than 
the other — has a little more stickiness. One is more plastic and the other 
more friable, just as in the mineral limestone we find some in a more 
friable condition than another. But there is no difference beyond this 
that science can reach. 

The Chairman. You state that all this fat in the animal is main- 
tained in its position by minute fibers surrounding globules of fat, and 
that all that hbroiis matter is removed from the oil by straiiiiug it. Is 
that straiuing through clotlis, sieves, or how is it done ? 

Professor Morton. I did uot intend to say that it was all removed by 
straining. It is removed by the process of rendering in this way: The 
fat is hashed up very tiue indeed, then it is heated, and this heat does 
two things — it melts the fat and it dries these little fibers. The result 
is that the fibers which inclose the fat shrink in drying. There is also 
a quantity of salt thrown in during the melting, and this tends to ab- 
stract the water and to dry these fibers and to load them with salt — to 
salt them, and salt to a very slight extent only is soluble in fat, but is 
freely soluble in water and in the aqueous liquids which pervade this 
film. The result of that is that there is a shrinking, and it is made dense 
and heavy and sinks down to the bottom of the tank, and this tiwik being 
allowed to stand, it settle-! into two layers, one into salt water, holding 
in it all this fibrous animal matter, and on top of that is a layer of oil, 
which, after it has stood a little while, is just as clear as olive oil. That 
is carefully drawn off into a clean tank and allowed to stand for several 
hours more, so that it may be perfectly certain that every atom and 
particle of fibre settles, and in the drawing off the drawing is managed 
by a strainer with minute holes in it, and that is place<i at the top of the 
oil and graduallj' lowered down as the level sinks, so that they never 
get at all close to the water layer. They stop drawing it off while there 
is still an inch or more of oil over the watery layer, and that much is 
thrown aside because it might contain a little scrap or fiber. This lower 
tpart ofhe oil is thrown into the tanks in which they make tallow. In 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 55 

the second place a second settling' occurs, and then the material is crys- 
tallized, and there it undergoes a subsequent filtration through canvas 
bags. Everything that is used has to be squeezed out through this 
thick canvas cloth in which the mass of stearine crystals is retained. 
The oleomargarine consists of a liquid oil which is strained, and it is 
only the liquid which is used. Anything solid settles with the stearine 
and is used for tallow. 

The Chairman. How long does this rendering or melting process 
continue ? 

Professor Morton. The actual melting occupies four hours usually, 
although that differs according to the size of the tank. It may take six 
hours, but usually I believe only four hours. 

The Chairman. At what teinperature is it conducted ? 

Professor Morton. The temperature in the center of the tank is 
about 130 to 140 degrees, but the temperature at the edges of the tank 
is very nearly that of boiling water; the water in the jacket of the tank 
is almost at a boil. Sometimes it is much hotter. Sometimes they use 
steam. But generally the water is kept almost up to the boiling point, 
and this fat as it gets melted is constantly, by a stirring apparatus, 
brushed around, and the entire mass is heated a great deal more thor- 
oughly than meat is ordinarily in cooking, for the material in that case 
is not as hot in the interior as it is where the material is swept around 
against this hot iron surface. 

The Chairman. Is this scrap again heated during the process you 
have described ? 

Professor Morton, x^o, sir; that scrap is at once thrown off with the 
oil belonging to it, and it is carried into a different part of the establish- 
ment, where they make a crude grease which is used for lubricating 
])urposes, the manufacture of caudles, or anything of that sort, and 
there it is melted and pressed, the scrap itself is heated and pressed in 
hydraulic presses along with the fat it contains, and the fiber is used for 
manure or something of that sort, but that has nothing to do with the 
oleomargarine i)art of the manufacture. 

The Chairman. Is the oleomargarine ever heated at a higher temper- 
ature during any other process, or is that the end of it ? 

Professor Morton. That is the end of the high heating. It is kept 
at about the same temperature. It does not do it any harm after that 
to heat it — there would be no objection to heating it, because when the 
scrap is once removed the heat is not liable to give any bad odor; but 
if heated very hot with the scrap in it, then it gets the flavor of roast 
meat, which is pleasant enough in roast meat, but not in butter. 

The Chairman. You have stated that none of this scrap was left in 
the oleomargarine, but that it was all absolutely extracted, as I under- 
stood you. 

Professor Morton. That has been my experience in all the cases I 
have examined. 

The Chairman. What would'you say then to a sample of oleomarga- 
rine which was still sweet, but which under the microscope did show 
fibrous material f 

Professor Morton. I should like to know a good deal about its ori- 
gin ; what the history of it was. Of course, if it was some one'sobject 
to make such a thing, there would be no trouble in making such a sam- 
ple. In other words, all you have to do is to make good oleomargarine 
and then take a little fat with scrap in it and stir it up together. 

The Chairman. Would it be possible to make in any oleomargarine 
factory, if they were not extremely careful but anxious to make a large 
profit by selling it and working carelessly, an unfit article for food ? 



56 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Professor Morton. It would never be done but once. Tliey would 
make one such large product and send it out, but it would all be sent 
b'^ck to Ibeiu. They would lose their money, and they would not do it 
again. 

The Chairman. If it was sold to consumers it would not besentback 
to the oleomargarine factory, but would be pronounced bad butter. 

Professor Morton. It would be recognized at once, because the stuff 
would be detected immediately. 

The Chairman. Have you any knowledge as to the percentage of 
lard now used in the mauufacture of oleomargarine in comparison with 
the amount of oleo used? 

Professor MoRiON. I do not now recall it, I have heard, but I have 
forgotten. I think it is something like liO per (;ent.. Some such pro- 
portion as that is frequently added, although that differs with the sea- 
son of the year; in winter they need more than they do in summer. 

The Chairman. Have you examined any of the oleonmrgarine facto- 
ries lately wheie they use lard at all ? 

Professor Morton, Yes; within a few weeks I have visited two of 
them in New York. 

The Chairman, Then they were using lard mixed with fat f 

Professor Morton. Y^es; they were using i)ure lard. 

Senator George. What about the use of cotton-seed oil ? 

Professor Morton, Cotton-seed oil has been used for the same pur- 
pose — that is to say, where the oleomargarine oil, as I have described 
it, has not had as much of its stearine removed from it as is required 
to bring it to the consistency of butter, then the same result can be 
obtained by adding more olein, more oil. Cottonseed oil is like olive 
oil, almost pure olein. There would be another way of doing this thing. 
You might take the pure ren<lered fat, and instead of getting rid of the 
stearin.e, if you had some other material which would add the ]»almatiu 
and oleiu by themselves, you might thus bring it to the same consist- 
ency or ]»roportion by adding this instead of removing the stearine. The 
process, as I have said, is not entirely under control as to tlie amount of 
stearine to be removed. But when not enough is removed you can get 
the required consistency by adding oleiu or cotton seed oil. 

The Chairman. In the factories you have examined, do they use 
much cotton-seed oil? 

Professor Morton. They were not using it at either of the factories 
I examined. At one of them they were using all the winter what is 
known as benne oil or oil of sesame. Sesame is a grain very well known 
in the East, Yoh may remember in the Arabian Is'ights in the story of 
the forty thieves, where the robbers opened the cave by saying "Opeu 
sesame." It is the name of a grain, a grain which is made, into bread 
and eaten in that way, and by pressure there can be extracted from it 
an oil which is largely used in that region for cooking, and also as a 
salad oil. It is nearly pure oleiu, something like olive oil aiul cotton- 
seed oil. ^ 

The Chairman, Y^ou have stated that the pure fats of animals do not 
contain, or that it never had been discovered that they contain, germs 
of disease. Would it not be possible that the tissues surrounding the 
fats of these animals could contain germs of disease? 

Professor Morton. They have never been found in the fats — that is 
a scientific fact. There is not an instance recorded or a reliable state- 
ment made of their having been found in the fats, although there is abun- 
dant evidence of their being found in the muscles or muscular tissues. 

The Chairman. I speak simply of the tissues that surround the fat; 
as to the oils I understood your statement. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 57 

Professor Morton. No, sir; they have not beeu discovered. 

The Chairman. Are you prepared to make the statement that they 
could not be found there"? 

Professor Morton. They never have beeu in the history of science. 
With all these microscoi)ical examinations, nobody has been found to 
make tlie statement. Xo one having the slightest show of authority 
has ever recorded the fact. Such things may have been stated in the 
newspapers. 

The Chairman, There are blood vessels running around that])ortion 
of the animal, so that when it is cut up and washed the water becomes 
bloody from it ? 

Professor Morton. Certainly. 

The Chairman. There must be blood vessels, and whatever there is in 
the blood must be there. 

Professor Morton. Very possibly, before the fat is washed; but it is 
thoroughly washed before it is hashed, and then all this animal matter 
is extracted from it. If there was anything in the blood, it would not 
leave it to go to the fat ; it would be embraced in the membranes if it 
was ever there. But there is no recoid of its being found in the fatty 
tissues ; it is in the muscles. The fatty tissues used tor this purpose are 
caul fat and not the fat distributed in the muscles of the animal. It is- 
the fat located around the digestive and vital organs. 

Tiie Chairman. Do you know of an^- factories now in which pure 
oleomargarine is manufactured, made entirely from the fat of beef cat- 
tle mixed with milk or cream or anything else? 

Professor Morton. Where there is no lard used ? 

The Chairman. Yes ; where there is no lard used — no oil. 

Professor M(;rton. ]N^o, sir; 1 do not know. I have not examined 
the Chicago factories, and therefore I do not know what they are doing 
there. As to the two I have seen lately in Xew York, in the one case 
they use lard only and in the other the oil of sesame as well. But those 
that were in New Y^ork some years ago which 1 examined there, used 
nothing but beef fat. 

Senator George. Messrs. Armour & Co., of Chicago, write that 
they u.se lard. 

Professor Morton. I so understand. 

Senator Jones. NVould the product be in any sense more objection- 
able with lard than without jt ? 

Professor Morton. 1 cannot see that it would if it was pure. 

Senator Jones. This process that you speak of, for separating the 
animal tissues and the steariue, is it accomplished in one or two proc- 
esses ? 

Professor Morton. Substantially in one ; although if there be any 
little fraguients of animal tissue left after the fat is melted, then they 
would be strained out in the press. 

Senator Jones. The material is heated for each process ? 

Proft 8Sor Morton. Yes ; it is heated but less in the first process for 
removing the animal tissues. 

Senator Jones. Is that the process you spoke of when you said the 
temperature was 130 degrees? 

Professor Morton. Yes; the highest heat is m the center of the tank. 
The highest heat that the fat is submitted to is that nearly of boiling 
water where the fat is brushed against the sides of the tank. 

Senator Jones. At what temperature is the product kept when the 
stearine is separated? 

Professor Morton. Between SO and 90 degrees. 



58 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Senator Jones. And that is continued for how long- 1 

Professor Morton. It is continued from 12 to 24 hours. 

Senator Jones. And that is the process in which you say putrefaction 
woul<l be developed very quickly ? 

Professor Morton. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. In the use of lard do they go through with the proc- 
ess of removing- the stearine from the lard f 

Professor Morton. No, sir. 

The (7HAIRMAN. There is not enough there to require that. So that 
that part of the process is not adopted when they are using lard instead 
of beef fat ? 

Professor Morton. Xo, sir. 

Senator Jones. When cotton-seed oil is used, what process is that 
submitted to to clear it from im])urities; is the ordinary market prod- 
uct put in just as it is ? 

Professor Morton. The ordinary clear market product is put in ; 
there is nothing done to it — at least I never have heard of anything of 
the kind. 

Senator George. You mean the retiued oil? 

Professor Morton. Yes, sir. 
. Senator Jones. At what stage of the process is that added ? 

Professor Morton. Just before the churning — in other words, it is 
mixed up with the other oils. 

Senator Jones. Is the oleomargarine cooled before the churning ? 

Professor Morton. JSTo, sir ; on the contrary it is heated to make it 
fluid. 

Senator Jones. After the process of taking the stearine from it is 
completed it is churned immediately ? 

Professor Morton. Not immediately. After the stearine is taken 
from it it is usually run into a tank, and then if the churning is done in 
the same building, that tank is kept heated by a steam ])ipe, and it is 
kept as a fluid in that tank. If it gets cool it is solid. Otherwise it is 
allowed to run into barrels and become hard, and when they are ready 
to churn it it has to be melted. 

Senator Jones. At what temperature is it churned ? 

Professor Morton. I do not recollect the exact temperature, bat it is 
the same temperature at which butter is churned, about 60 degrees. 

The Chairman. The mixture of cotton-seed or sesame oil is a mere 
mechanical mixing ? 

Professor Morton. It is mixed with other oils and it makes an in- 
dissoluble mixture — if, you get them once mixed you cannot separate 
them again. 

The Chairman. Do you desire to make any further statement? 

Mr. CouDERT. Will you kindly ask the Professor what the effect of 
cotton seed, beniie and sesame oil is on the wholesomeiiess of the 
product, ami what the functions of butyrin and butyric acid are in the 
butter ? 

The Chairman. You can answer that question, professor. 

Professor Morton. Iu the first place, those materials are, in them- 
selves, perfectly wholesome. The}' are exactly analogous to olive oil. 
They are used constantly and largely in the place of olive oil in many 
countries. Sesame oil is used abroad in the same way that we use olive 
oil. It is an article of food. The people who use it know exactly what 
it is, and it is largelj' used. 

Senator George. Are you speaking now of cotton-seed oil ? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 59 

Professor Morton. Not exclusively. I say tbat tlie oil of sesame is 
used in Turkey and Asia, where it is bir^ely raised, and it is also raised 
in the South to some extent. Cotton seed oil is also used in that way. 
In tact, the larger part of the olive oil that we use on our tables is made 
of eottou-seed oil. 

Senator George. Cotton seed oil is a healthful product, then "? 

Professor Morton. Yes, it is a perfectly healthy product. In the 
next place, with regard to butyrine. Butyrine itself in butter, of course, 
while it remains as butyrine is a source of no inconvenience, and it gives 
a flavor to the butter. It is quite as digestible, perhaps a trifle more 
digestible, than the other fats. But it is present in such small quantities 
that it makes no practical difference. It would be the difference between 
the digestibility of mutton, veal, beef, and other kinds of meat. To some 
persons one might be more digestible than the other. It is, however, lia- 
ble to decompose, and in fact is one of the most readily decomposed bodies 
present in the fat. When butter becomes rancid and disagreeable, when 
it has that sharp, biting taste, it is sim])ly because the butyrine is sepa- 
rated into glycerine and butyric acid. Butyric acid in i)erfectiou, one 
might say, is an intensely strong acid. It is an acid which, if pure, 
would be a deadly poison. If you should swallow half an ounce of pure 
butyric acid it would have a fatal effect, just as a half an ounce of acetio 
acid would. It comes from butyrine, and is intensely strong, and will 
displace some of the strongest mineral acids in chemistry. You all know 
the peculiar flavor of Rociuefort cheese, how shar[) it is. That sharpness 
consists in a mere trace of butyric acid. Therefore you can imagine 
that butyric acid, pure and simple, is quite a powerful acid, and really 
a corrosive agent. But of course it is present in that form in a very 
minute quantity only. When butter be(!omes rancid even that small 
quantity is highly irritating to the stomach. It is not only disagree- 
able, but \'ery un vvh(»lesome. In this way the presence of butyrine is ob- 
jectionable, because it makes the butter liable to undergo that change, 
which it is not liable to undergo without it. Therefore oleomargarine 
will keep nuich longer than ordinary butter, as it contains less butyriu. 

Senator Jones. In how many factories have you ever seen this sub- 
stance prei>ared ? 

Prolessor Morton. In about six factories. 

Senator Jones. Is the plant and machinery of this [u-ocess expeu 
sive ! 

Professor Morton. It is rather expensive. 

Senator Jones, ('an it be manufactured in a small way and by small 
establishments prolitably ? 

Professor Morton. Not with profit. It must be done, I should say, 
on a fairly large scale to be profitable. 

Senator Jones. Have you any idea how many establishments of this 
kind there are in New York and Philadel[)hia, for instance ? 

Professor jMoRton. I have only heard of one in Philadelphia, and in 
New York, at present, I only know of four. 

Senator Jones. In those which you iiave examined are there any 
tricks of the trade resorted to — if i may use a vulgar expression— by 
which a cheaper product is made which is more deleterious or objection- 
able than a product honestly made? 

Professor Morton. None whatever. There is very little temptation 
to do such a thing. In other words, anything that will cheapen the 
product sjioils it. Y'^ou can only make a good iiroduct. Any attempt to 
use fat that is really old and stale is unprofitable. An ounce of stale 
fat put into a ton of good fresh fat will spoil the whole thing before the 



60 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

process is conipletod. So that so far from their being: any temptation 
to use anything- impure, the object is to use the very best material, in 
order to make a good sahible product. 

The Chairman. Do you think the lard is used because it is cheaper 
than beef fat? 

Professor Morton. iSTo, sir; I think the motive is to improve the 
structure. 

The Chairman. What would you say of oleonuirgarine which con- 
tained 90 per cent, of lard and 10 per cent, of oleomargarine? 

Professor Morton. I should say it was a very poor article. Of course, 
it may hapi>en that some man may make a foolish experiment, thinking" 
he is going to make it cheaper, but he will find out that he has cheated 
hinjself. He conld not make a good article that he could sell twice to 
the same customer, unless he is honest and cleanly in the manufacture. 

Senator' Jones. We have been told about the vile compounds that are 
used in nuiking the oleo — the fat of cats and dogs and animals which 
died of disease. 

Professor Morton. To an^^one who knows about it these stories are 
simply absurd. It is utterly impossible to do any «uch thing. As I 
have said, if the auinuil has been dead a short time the fat cannot be 
used. For iu.stance, you could not use fat from the meat which is hung 
up and exposed for sale in market for the pur])ose of making oleomar- 
garine. Although such meat is not hnrt for ordinary use, and can be 
cooked and eaten, the fat of it would be utterly ruined for the ])urpose 
of making oleomargarine. The ex])osure of the meat in the market 
would give the ])roduct a strong tallowy odor, different from a i)utrid 
one, but the moment you tasted it you would say that it was not butter. 
No one would eat it. It would not have a butter taste. The very same 
taste in beef to which we are accustomed would be considered offensive 
if observed in butter. The very same flavor that I have defined as 
tallowy does not offend us at all in connection with cooked meat, be- 
cause we are used to it in that connection. But if you try this experi- 
ment — if you take froni a piece of beef you are eating a piece of the 
fat and chop it up fine and mix it with butter which you have on 
3'our table, and taste it, you would say it was very bad butter. It 
tastes good enough as beef fat, because you are accustomed to it in that 
way, bat you object to that flavor in butter. It is just the same way 
with cheese. If you know you are eating a piece of Swiss cheese with 
its peculiar odor, your sense is not offended. But if a piece of that 
cheese gets on the side of the table or on your coat, and you smell it, 
you think there is something very nasty about it. 

Senator Jones. Then you think that aniuuils which have died a nat- 
ural death coald not be used in this way, because a putrefaction would 
be produced in the manufacture ? 

Professor Morton. Yes, a change would be produced which would 
render the product tallow and not oleomargarine. 

Senator Jones. That you say would be unavoidable"? 

Professor Morton. It would be unavoidable. It could not be helped. 

Senator Jones. You do not think you could make good oleomarga- 
rine out of a dead cat or dog ? 

Professor Morton. I will stake my reputation on that — that it could 
not be done, because I have tried an analogous experiment to that very 
thing. I have taken fat which was put in a barrel and left over night, 
and in melting it down I found that the product was perfectly offensive 
and could not be used for one moment. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 61 

Senator Blair. I want to ask you a question in another direction. 
As I understand you, the object of this complicated i)rocess you have 
described is to produce something as much like good butter as possible f 

Professor Morton. It is to produce something that shall be an effi- 
cient substitute for butter, that people can use as they do butter. 

Senator Blair. To make it as much like it as possible and get a 
healthy food f 

Professor Morton. Yes; that is the idea. 

Senator Blair. You have spoken of various coloring matters .put into 
butter as well as into oleomargarine — and right here I will ask you if 
you use the soft g in the word " oleomargarine"? 

Professor Morton. Yes, sir ; I do. 

Senator Blair. I understand you that none of these coloring matters 
are either expensive or hurtful ? 

Professor Morton. That is true. 

Senator Blair. They are used in candies, butter, and various other 
articles f 

Professor Morton. Yes, sir; used in confectionery. 

Senator Blair. What difierent colors are there used for the puri>ose 
of distinguishing articles one from the other"? You have red in candy 
and yellow in butter. What other colors are used in that way ? 

Professor Morton. In candies they use very nearly every color, such 
as blue, red, green, and so on. 

Senator Blair. This is the point 1 desire to make : Is not the one 
great difficulty about this thing that the man who eatsitdoes not know 
whether it is butter or oleomargarine — I mean the consumer, the man 
who puts it on his piece of bread and eats it. I am not talking about 
the i)urchaser, the hotel kee]>er, or the landlord. But the consumer 
does not know what he is doing ; he understands that he is eating but- 
ter. Now, suppose the law should require all oleomargarine to be cov- 
ered with some red substance and that all oleomargarine not of that 
particular color should be forfeited. It never could be mistaken for 
butter then, could it ? 

Professor Morton. No, sir. 

Senator Blair. Do you see any reason — 1 observe nothing of the 
kind in this House biil — but do you see any reason why oleomargarine, 
if it is to be nmnufactured and sold, should not by law be required to 
be of some detinite color which nobody could mistake for the color of 
butter, so that it could never be mistaken for butter unless butter was 
colored like oleomargarine. Can you see any reason why that should 
not be done f 

Professor Morton. I see uiany reasons w^hy it would not be ])roper. 

Senator Blair. That could be left to those who make the laws on the 
subject; they could deal with that. But is there anything in that sug- 
gestion by w^hich any harm would be done to any article of food, not 
oleomargarine alone? 

Professor Morton, It wouhl not affect its wholesoujeness, but it 
would affect it greatly as an article of food in the manufacture and sale 
of it, because the value of an article of food depends agreat deal ui)on 
the idea of the person who purchases it, and such a requirement would 
tend to disgust the purchaser with the article. 

Senator Blair. But if I want to eat butter and have all these i»reju- 
dices in favor of butter, do you think it is right that anybody should 
come along with a substitute which 1 think is butter and comi)cl me to 
pay for it: and eat it as butter. Is that right! 



62 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Professor Morton. It is not right that no guards should be thrown 
around butter, so that you do not ivuow what you are eating. 

Senator Blair. For instance, you are goiug to sell me oleomargarine 
and I am going to eat it. You can paint that oleomargarine red, or the 
color of the violet, or any color but tiie color which has been appropri- 
ated to butter ever since it was made the buttercup color. You can 
make it any color you please and appropriate that color to oleomarga- 
rine by law and it will be just as wholesome as before. 

Professor Morton. It would be just as wholesome, of course, but it 
would be destroyed, almost, as an article of food. 

Senator Blair. But if 1 am the man to consume this product and pay 
for it, whether it be butter or oleomargarine, is it not fair that I should 
know what I am eating ? 

Professor MoRTON. I think so — if you wish to. 

Senator Blair. Is it fair for an oleomargarine man to put into it the 
color of butter when he can use anything else, and so sell me the i)rod- 
uct as butter ? 

Professor Morton. As regards that single point that is correct. 

Senator Blair. That is not one that means simple dollars and cents. 

Professor Morion. I cannot quite agree with you about that. 

Senator Blair. In what way will it interfere with the cost of the 
manufacture and the consumption of oleomargarine to paint it red and 
not allow it to be made of any other color ? 

Professor Morton. By creating a prejudice and disgust in the minds 
of many men against it. 

Senator Blair. Why should not oleomargarine tell the truth f Why 
should it be allowed to lie itself into mj^ stomach ? Should I pay for it 
under those circumstances ? 

Professor Morton. No, sir. 

Senator Blair. That is all I want to ask you. 

Professor Morton. It should certainly be sold for what it is, and every 
guard should be put around it so that everybody may know what it is. 

Senator Jones. But the man who chooses to eat it ought to be allowed 
to have it of the color of butter, if he finds out what that is. 

Senator Blair. Y^es, if he chooses to eat it himself; but if I want to 
eat lutter, has he any right to make this article like butter so that I 
cannot tell the difference, and say it is butter so that I pay for it as butter ? 

Professor Morton. That assumes that the artificial color does make 
it so that it cannot be distinguished from butter. 

Senator Blair. What is the object of putting the color in ? 

Professor Morton. To give it the same general appearance. 

Senator Blair. Y^^u tell me in the first place that the object of the 
coloring process and everything else is to produce a healthy article of 
food just like butter to, take the place of butter in the market. 

Professor Morton. Yes, and if you color it differently it will not take 
the place of it. 

Senator Blair. But it will be just as good and wholesome as an ar- 
ticle of food f 

Professor Morton. Yes, aside from the influence upon the imagina- 
tion. 

Senator Blair. That prejudice will pass away very soon. 

Professor Morton. Not in the present state of affairs. 

Senator Blair. Suppose butter had always been red, would we not 
have the same prejudice in favor of red butter as we now have in favor 
of yellow butter f 

Professor Morton. I suppose so. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 63 

Senator Blaie. Suppose you do sell the oleomargarine for jnst wliat 
it is, the pnblic do not know that they are eating oleomargarine; they 
think they are eating butter, and one reason is because it is yellow like 
butter. Suppose you made it red or violet, or appropriated some })ar- 
ticular color to oleomargarine, or let it go without any color whatever, 
then it would not be mistaken for butter. 

Professor Morton. All that might be possible if started judiciously; 
but after all the statements tbat have been made about it and the pub- 
lic prejudice which has been worked up for years and years, it will take 
ten years to overcome it perhaps, and by that time the mischief is al- 
ready done. 

Senator Blair. But after all should not every product sell under its 
own color f 

Professor Morton. I do not think so. We have ice cream which is 
of the same color as butter, and candies also. 

Senator Blair. But we never understand that we are eating butter 
when we are eating ice cream. 

Senator George. I have been requested to ask several questions by 
some gentlemen present. You have probably gone all over this subject 
and therefore you can answer these questions without making much ex- 
planation. I am requested to ask you first to state your age, residence, 
and occupation. 

Professor Morton. I am 49 years of age ; I reside in Hoboken, New 
Jersey, and am president of the Stevens Institute of Technology in Ho- 
boken, an institute of mechanical engineering. 

Senator George. What attention have you given to the study of 
chemistry, and for how long a time"? 

Professor Morton. For over twenty-five years it has been my partic- 
ular life study. 

Senator George. What knowledge have you regarding the manu- 
facture of oleomargarine and relative substitutes for butter, as carried 
on in a commercial scale in this country ? 

Professor Morton. From the time the process was first invented and 
the product first came to this country I was informed about it, and have 
been called upon to examine various patents and processes continu- 
ously from year to year. Hardly a year has passed where something- 
has not come to me to be examined and reported upon in connection 
with that subject. 

Senator George. What is your opinion in regard to this material 
as a wholesome article of food ? 

Professor Morton. I consider it perfectly wholesome. I eat it my- 
self without hesitation and have it often in my house. 

Senator George. Is it true that this product can be or is made of 
improper substances or injurious substances, and that chemicals ar^ 
used in its manufacture? Perhai)s you have already answered thai. 

Professor Morton. It is not true. It is utterly impossible to make it 
of tainted materials, and no chemicals are used in its manufacture — that 
is, nothing in the usual meaning of that term, such as violent corrosives 
or other injurious materials. Salt, which is in one sense a chemical sub- 
stance, is used. 

Senator George. Has any injurious substance been found in any 
specimen of oleomargarine by yourself or chemists of standing and re- 
pute, to your knowledge 1 

Professor M(jrton. None whatever ; there is no evidence of any such 
thing. 

Senator George. Is it in your opiniou probable or even possible 



64 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

under the normal conditions of niannfacture, that any germs of disease 
could be introduced into oleomargarine ? 

Professor Morton. I do not believe it is at all possible or probable. 

Senator George. Wbat are the comparative risks of the introduction 
of disease germs into oleomargarine and pure butter? 

Professor Morton. They aie considerably greater in i)ure butter. 
It is easier to getgermsiuto milk, and milk is never heated in the making 
of butter, so that nothing is done to protect it. The risk of introducing 
the germs of consum])tion from cows suffering with that disease would 
be far greater in the mauutacture of butter than in the manufacture of 
oleomargariue. 

Senator Gibson. What is the point of temperature to which oleomar- 
garine is raised in the process of manufacture f 

Professor Morton. The individual particles of it come very nearly to 
the boiling poiut of water; just to a good cooking temperature. 

Senator Gibson. Would that destroy the germs necessarily ? 

Professor Morton. It would destroy them under almost all circuia- 
stauces There are cases, but very rare ones, iudeed, in which germs 
will resist very high temperature, and in such cases they would not be 
destroyed by ordinary cooking. 

Senator George. What is your opinion of the relative digestibility 
of oleomargarine and butter? 

Professor Morton. I think they are substantially identical. If there 
is any difference it is only the difference, as I said before, between one 
variety of meat and another. 

Senator Gibson. How did this product or compound get the name of 
oleomargarine? 

Professor Morton. Because at one time the intermediate fat between 
stearine and olein, now called })almatin, was called margarine from ' 
margaiis, a pearl. But it was afterwards found that it was really a 
mixture, and when the various substances were separated a new name 
was given to it and it was called palmatin, because it is similar to palm 
oil. But at the time it was first made public the old name was used. 

Senator Gibson, Does the name in any degree indicate the elements 
of which the substance is composed? 

Professor Morton. Only the proximate elements — that it mainly con- 
sists of olein and uuirgarine, which is another name for palmatin. 

Senator Gibson. What is the popukir name by which it is known to 
the trade ? 

Professor Morton. It is known to the trade as oleo. 

Senator Gibson. How is it designated in commerce, for instance in 
a bill of sale, when it is sold foi' consumption and distribution ? 

Professor Morton. I have heard it called oleomargarine and butter- 
ine. Those are the only names J have known. 

Senator George. What is the difference between oleomargarine and 
butterine ? 

Professor Morton. There is no real difference. The name ''butter- 
ine" was introduced in England and the name "oleomargarine" was in- 
troduced in France. I do not know that there is any recognized differ- 
ence between them in the trade. 

Senator George. I have beard that the difference is that after oleo- 
margarine was made it was mixed with butter, and that w-as all. 

Professor Morton. Perhaps, among dealers. I do not think there is 
any difference. 

SenatA)r Gibson. Those are the names by which it is known to the 
trade — oleomargarine and butterine ? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 65 

Professor Morton. Yes, sir. 

Seuator Gibson. Do you kuow whether it is mauufactured in foreign 
countries at all ? 

Professor Morton. It is, very largely, and is regulated there by the 
Government. It is sold in great quantities in Euglaud. In Massachu- 
setts it is sold under State regulations under its own name. 

Senator Gibson. And it is sold on the Continent, in France, Germany, 
and Italy ? 

Professor Morton. Yes. I do not know about Italy, but I know it 
is in England and that a great deal of it is made in Holland. 

Senator Gibson. Do you know what quantity is manufactured in the 
United States ? 

Professor Morton. I <lo not know the total quantity; I have seen it 
printed, but I have forgotten. 

Seuator Gibson, Do you know the value of the product ? 

Professor Morton. I do not remember ; it is very large. 

Senator Gibson. Could you furnish to the committee a statement of 
the quantity manufactnred and its market value"? 

Professor Mouton. I cannot at this moment, but I will see that it is 
furnislied. 

The Chairman. You state that the milk or cream and butter was 
mixed with it slightly to make it ap])ear and taste like butter. Do you 
know wht^tlierany other materials are used to flavor oleomargarine ex- 
cept the milk and cream and butter? 

Professor Morton. I have heard that on occasions other things have 
been added with a view of producing flavors. 

The Chairman. With a view to producing a butter flavor? 

Professor Morton. Yes; to produce a butter flavor. But they have 
been added, I think, by ignorant people, because they would not do it. 

The Chairman, What other things have been used for that purpose! 

Professor Morton. I have heard of butyric acid being put in, but the 
quantity was so minute as not to be appreciable. It was a foolish thing 
to do, and probably was never done except as an experiment. They 
may ha^e been advised that it was a good thing to do, but upon trying 
it they would discover it was not. 

Senator Gibson. Is oleomargarine manufactured of diflerent quali- 
ties ! 

Professor Morton. Yes; there are diflerent qualities of oleomarga- 
rine as there are of butter, but not within so wide a range. 

Senator Gibson. How many degrees of difterence do exist in the 
actual market '? 

Professor Morton. I imagine there are several, in the sense that judges 
of these things will say, " Here is an oleomargarine with a particularly 
fine flavor," For instance, if they use an extra amount of cream and 
milk in making it they will get a richer flavor, and it will be sold as a 
high grade of oleomargarine. 

Seuator Gibson. Do you know what scale of prices exist on the 
market — what is the product worth a pound generally? 

Professor Morton. I do not know. I have not followed that ; but I 
think somewhere about 20 cents a pound. 

Senator Gibson. There is a ditterence in the price, then '? 

Professor Morton. I presume so, but I could not say. I do not deal 
in the article at all. 

Senator Gibson. I am asking you as a professor whose attention has 
been drawn to the article. 
17007 OL 5 



66 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS, 

Professor Morton. But my opportunities of learning about these 
things are very small. 

Senator Gibson. Are there as great ditferences in the qualities and 
prices of oleomargarine in the markets as there are in the prices of but- 
ter ? 

Professor Morton. No, sir; oleomargarine has a very narrow range. 
If it is not a good article you cannot sell it at all. If there is anything 
wrong about it, It becomes offensive. Whereas you might have very 
bad and rancid butter, and sell it at a very low price, you cannot have 
rancid oleomargarine and sell it any price at all. If it is not quite 
good, it has to be sold for tallow. Between that and the best of it there 
is not a very great range, although there is some. 

Senator Plumb. Do you know of any difference in the method of 
manufacturing butterine and that employed in the manufacture of oleo- 
margarine ? 

Professor Morton. Only in this sense, that sometimes they speak 
of the extracting of this oleomargarine oil as the making of oleomargarine, 
but they never use the term "making butterine" in that sense. But- 
terine always means the article finished so that it can go on the table 
for butter. The word "oleomargarine" may be used to designate the 
manufacturing of the oil or of the finished product. The word " but- 
terine" refers to the finished product only. 

Senator Plumb. You think what fixes the grade of each kind of but- 
terine is the use more or less of milk or cream ? 

Professor Morton. I think so. 

Senator Plumb. Or the use of butter ? 

Professor Morton. Yes; I have heard of butter being mixed with it 
to increase its flavor. 

Senator Plumb. I am told that in Kansas City one concern there 
buys the entire butter ])roduct of a large creamery. 

Professor Morton. They might well do so because of the additional 
flavor that would give it. 

Senator Plumb. All the milk is brought down from three or four 
counties there and used. 

Senator Blair. Do those manufacturers make the article from its ele- 
ments to its complete preparation for the table f 

Professor Morton. In some cases they do, and in some cases the 
manufacture is divided. Some manufacture the oleomargarine oil and 
then put it in tierces and send it to the other manufacturers who do 
the churning, the mixing of the material, and so on. It is a different 
kind of process. One process can be carried on very close to a slaughter 
house, where they want to get the fat as fresh as possible and try it out 
immediately. The churning part is better done of course at a distance. 

Senator Blair. That churning process could be done just as well in 
a fanner's family as anywhere else, in small quantities? 

Professor Morton. Oh, yes, it could be, and has been, and is being 
so done to some extent. 

Senator Blair. You say this i)rocess is carried on by the farmers 
themselves to some extent. 

Professor Morton. Yes, I have been told so. 

Senator Blair. What is theie to prevent this coming to be a univer- 
sal thing, then, with the entire dairy interest, so that the oleomargarine 
interest will become amalgamated and absorbed the one in the other "? 

Professor Morton. I think there is this reason, that the best oleo- 
margarine you could possibly make, with any economy in making it, 
would never be so fine, in the sense of commanding so high a price, as 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 67 

thoroughly good butter. It is the peculiar fats of butter that give it a 
fine flavor, and you never could make an oleomargarine as good as the 
finest butter. 

Senator Blair. Do you know anything of the prime cost of the man- 
ufacture of oleomargarine as compared with that of butter? 

Professor Morton. It varies. It depends on the price of beef and 
so on — what they have to pay for the fats. I have really no personal 
knowledge about that. 

Senator Blair. You have some idea perhaps or judgment about it? 

Professor Morton. Only from what I have seen in the papers. 

The Chairman. The professor appears as an expert and does not 
intend to speak on that j^art of the subject. 

Professor Morton. No, sir ; I have no knowledge in regard to it. 
1 have no personal relations to these gentlemen. They simply asked 
me to come from my professional chair and make this statement to you. 

STATEMENT OF CHARLES F. CHANDLER. 

Prof. Charles F. Chandler, of Columbia College, New York, then 
addressed the committee: I would not, o± course, wish to take up the 
time of the committee by repeating anything that Dr. Morton has said, 
but I will say at the outset that I agree with Dr. Morton in every 
statement that he has made. 

Senator George. You were present and heard his statement to the 
committee 1 

Professor Chandler. Yes, sir; I heard his statement which he has 
just concluded. I have been called upon officially oi three different 
occasions to investigate this subject. I was first called upon as presi- 
dent of the board of health of New York City, by the State senate of 
New York, to carefully investigate it, and I i)repared a report which 
was approved b^' my colleagues of the health department and for- 
warded to Albany. Afterwards, in 1880, 1 was called upon by the Com- 
mittee on Manufactures of the House of Representatives, and at that 
time I i)repared a report with the approval of my colleagues of the 
health department, and I will leave a copy of that report with the com- 
mittee. 

Senator George. You indorse the statements therein made ? 

Professor Chandler. Yes, sir ; 1 indorse them at the present time. 
I have not a copy of the first report sent to the New York State sen- 
ate, but it is essentially the same. I was afterwards called upon by 
the New York board of aldermen and made a report which was ap- 
proved hy the board of health and which was printed in the City 
Record, of which this is a copy. 

Senator George. You reaffirm that statement now "? 

Professor Chandler. 1 do ; yes, sir. In all of these reports I have 
taken the ground that this is a new process for making an old article, 
and that article is butter. This is a new process for making butter. It 
is made of materials which are in every respect wholesome and proper 
articles of food, whether it be made solely from the oleomargarine ex- 
tracted from beef fat, or whether it has added to it more or less leaf lard 
properlj' prepared, or more or less sesame oil or cotton-seed oil, and 
whether it be or not colored with auuatto or the other coloring matters 
used. I take the ground that there is nothing in any one of these ma- 
terials in any sense unwholesome, and nothing in any one of them which 
makes it inferior as an article of food to dairy butter. I regard the dis- 



68 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

covery of Mege-Mouries, of a process by which beef fat and hog" fat can 
be extracted from adipose tissue and converted into a wholesome arti- 
cle of food free from any disagreeable taste or odor, as one of the most 
importajit discoveries made in this century, a discovery by which it is 
possible to make a perfectly pure and satisfactory, as well as a whole- 
some, article of food at a reasonable price. I have visited various fac- 
tories where this article is manufactured, from the time the industry be- 
gan down <"o date. 1 am perfectly familiar with the materials em])loyed 
and the different processes, and know there is nothing whatever used 
either in mjiteiial or jirocess which is unwholesome or in any way dele- 
terious to the ))ublic health. 

Senator George. Or which would be disgusting if known ? 

Prolessor Chandler. Pre(;isely. On the contrary, the processes by 
which this kind of butter is manufactured are much more cleanly than 
the juocesses by which dairy butter is manufactured. The beef fat or 
leaf lard is taken ont of the animals there, i)Ut into cold water, and 
thoronghly washed and cleansed. 

t^enator Plumb. Is it necessary that that should be done 1' 

Piofessor Chandler. It is necessary. It is impossible to make an 
article that would sell unless this is done. In order to remove and cool 
the fat at once, it is necessary that it should be washed, and the fat is 
converted into butter in botli stages without being handled in any way. 
Then it is worked up and melted in vessels in jacketed kettles, and 
therefore it is much more cleanly because never handled by human be- 
ings — all the work is accomplished by machinery. Whereas dairy but- 
ter is ujanufactnred in small quantities without — well, it will hardly be 
worth while to say anything which will tend to disgust persons with 
dairy butter, and I will refrain from stating what everybody must know, 
that in some dairies at least cleanliness is not strictly observed. In the 
majority of the dairies the butter is constantly handled and worked by 
human hands, which, to my iniud, is a ])rocess of manufacture far less 
a])petizing than the process by which the oleomargarine butter is formed. 

1, of course, have not followed all these proceedings before Congress, 
but I have read what has been printed, and am quite aware of the scope 
of this investigation. We had a senate investigation in New York City 
for the purpose of discussing fully the subject of artificial butter. The 
person who managed that investigation came and consulted me about it, 
but very carefully refrained from calling me as a witness, and the evi- 
dence taken before that commission is too ridiculous ever to have been 
printed by so august a body as the senate of the State of New York. 
The statements that were made there were utterly ridiculous. Stories 
with regard to offensive processes and offensive materials used iti pre- 
paring food were rehearsed, and the story of the use of nitric acid was 
repeated, as well as the old story that the workmen employed in these 
factories lost their toe-nails in consequence of the acid which was used 
in working the fat, and many things of that kind. I never (X)uld under- 
stand how the State senators of New York could permit su(!h testimony 
to go on record and be printed. But it was done, and that kind of evi- 
dence has been manufactured all over the country with the view of dis- 
gusting the public with this kiiul of butter. Artificial butter has never 
had a fair opportunity to be presented to the citizens of this country, 
and this legislation with regard to it recalls to my mind legislation which 
is found in the records of the past. 

Some of you remember, I i)resume, that before the discovery of the 
passage around the Cape of Good Hope to India the only dye-stuff cul- 
tivated to any extent in England was woad, an inferior dye which our 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 69 

ancestors employed for dyeing their products. When the trade with 
Bengal sprang up, indigo was brought to England, and immediately 
there was a great hue and cry made against indigo. It was said it was 
going to ruin the woad farmer of England, and they called it devil's 
dirt — Teufelsdrockh was the name in German — and it was made a capi- 
tal crime in England, France, and Germany for anybody to be caught 
with indigo on his premises. It was not suggested that it should be 
colored blue, because tliat was its ruitural color and it was not neces- 
sary. Soon after logwood was discovered in Honduras, and when it was 
attempted to introduce it into England as a dye laws were passed against 
it. We have had that kind of legishition always. It is not many j^ears 
since a petition was presented to Parliament in England protesting 
against tli«^ use of Lops in beer, on tbe ground that it would destroy 
the digestion of the English i)co])h^. There was a similar attempt at 
legislation in regard to the burning of soft coal. They had used only 
wood and charcoal in P^ngland, and when it was i)roposed to take coal 
out of the ground and bring it to London they said it would ruin the 
industry of the people who cut wood in the forests to make charcoal; 
that it was unhealthy and would make a smoke that would get into the 
lungs of the knights who came from the country to Parliament to sit and 
legislate for the people. 

With regard to the statements concerning the unwholesome charac- 
ter of these materials, I have paid particular atteition to the subject^ 
and feel competent to speak ujjon it. 

Senator George. Are you a doctor of medicine? 

Professor Chandler. I am an M. D., but lam nota practitioner of medi- 
cine. I have been a professor in a medical college for twenty years, and 
have made a special study of this subject of germs — nofc recently, but I be- 
gan a dozen years ago. I have a laboratory where I conduct my experi- 
ments by the use of the microscope, and I am familiar with all the litera- 
ture on the subject of any value, and I do not hesitate to say that there 
is nothing whatever in the assertion that there is any danger of germs in 
this artificial butter. There is no foundation of fact at all for those 
statements. It is a bugbear which is conjured up in order to disgust 
jieople on the subject of beef fat. I have paid some attention to trichi- 
na?. President Arthur appointed n)e a ujember of the commission ap- 
pointed to investigate the character of swine products of the United 
States. This committee is aware that in Germany they started a theory 
that American hog products were unwholesome. Having called them 
all the bad names they could think of, they then legislated against 
them and excluded them from that country. In the course of that in- 
vestigation I found, in the first place, that American pork is remark- 
ably free from trichiuje and other diseases of that character, and in the 
second place, that if the pork contained trichinje, those little worms 
would not be in the fat which is used in the making of leaf lard. That 
is not the place for them. They go to the muscles and not to the fat, 
and if they did go there, it would not do anv harm, because this fat 
fat is put through a hashing machine, the very object of which is to cut 
ui) the cells which contain the fat. That hashing process would be 
fatal to the trichiiue or worms. Then after that the material is heated 
in the rendering and melting, so that if any life remained it would be 
destroyed in that process of heating. But if any should l)e so vigorous 
as to withstand these two processes, when the butter was salted it would 
be too much for them. 

It was held by the commission that as to trichinous pork, if salted 
down and left in brine a mouth or two, the result would be the killing 
of the trichinoe worms. 



70 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Senator Gibson. Has that report been printed ? 

Professor Chandler. Yes ; it was printed by the United States 
Government. 

Senator Gibson. Will yon not make that a part of your statement, 
as it deals with this subject ? 

Professor Chandler. Yes; I will make the papers I have spoken of 
a part of my statement. 

The papers referred to are as follows : 

Report on the Swine Products of the United States, Executive Doc- 
ument 1^0. 106, House of Representatives, Forty-eighth Congress, first 
session. 

Also the following, which were ordered to be printed as a part of this 
record : 

Health Department, No. 301 Mott Street, 

New York, Maij 3, 1881. 

To the honorable the Board of Aldermen : 

At a meeting of the board of health, held this day, a report of the presideut ou 
oleomargarine was presented and approved, and a copy was ordered to be forwarded 
to your honorable body as a response to resolution adopted on the '28th ult., and re- 
ceived on that date frt)m your honorable body. 
A copy of the report is inclosed. 
Very respectfully, 

EMMONS CLARK, 

Secretar)/. 



New York, Mm/ 2, 1881. 
To the Board of Health of the Health Department : 

Having been directed by this board to investigate the subject of oleomargarine, in 
response to the resolutions of the Board of Aldermen, I would beg leave to submit the 
following report ; 

The resolutions directing the inquii'y are as follows: 

"Whereas there is existing at the present time in the minds of the public great 
alarm and distrust in relation to the adulteration ot food products ; and 

"Whereas the committee on public health of the assembly of this State has been 
for simie time investigating the adulteration of food products, and especially oleo- 
margarine ; and 

"Whereas this committee have conducted such investigation by calling as wit- 
nesses ])rincipally dealers in butter, and have not examined as witnesses medical or 
chemical experts to determine the value of oleomargarine as food : Therefore, 

" Betolved, That the board of health of this city be, and they are hereby, requested 
and directed to take immediate measures to investigate, in the most thorough man- 
ner, by medical and chemical aid, the purity, healthfulness. and value of said product 
as an article of food, and to report to this body the results of their investigation, with 
such recommendations, if any be necessary, as may relate to the manufacture and 
distribution of the same as an article of food." 

This subject has been before the board on former occasions, and I have little to add 
to what has been previously stated. 

Oleomargarine, invented by the distinguished French chemist, Mege Mouries, is 
manufactured in New York City in a few large establishments. The material is fresh 
beef suet, brought directly from the slaughter-houses. It is thoroughly washed, ren- 
deied very carefully, strained to remove a portion of the hard steariue, and then 
churned with milk to convert it into artificial butter, which contains the same con- 
stituents as dairy butter. The process is extremely ingenious and simple, and is exe- 
cuted by machinery. Nothing objectionable exists in the original material, nor is 
anything oltjectionable added during the process, and the operations are conducted 
with the utmost cleanliness. The product is palatable and wholesome, can be made 
of uniform quality the year round, is in every respect superior as an article of food 
to a large proportion of the dairy butter sold in this city, and can be manufactured 
at a much lower price. I regard it as a most valuable article of food, and consider 
it entirely unexceptional in every respect. In this opinion 1 am supported by the 
best sf'ientific authorities in the country. The following distinguished chemists, 
affer carefully studying the manufacture, have made the most decided statements iu 
favor of this new article of food : 

Prof. George F. Barker, University of Pennsylvania. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 71 

Dr. Henry A. Mott, jr., New York. 

Prof. G. C. Caldwell, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 

Prof. S. W. Johnson, Yale College, New Haven, Conn. 

Prof. C. A. Goessmaun, Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, Mass. 

Prof. Henry Morton, Stevens Institute, Hoboken, N. J. 

Prof. Charles P. Williams, Philadelphia. 

Prof. W. O. At water, Wesley an University, Middletown, Conn. 

Prof. J. W. S. Arnold, University of New York. 

I would further say that this question is one on which there is no difference of opin- 
ion among scientific investigators familiar with the chemistry of dairy products and 
fats, I have never seen a statement emanating from any person having any standing 
among scientific men in which a contrary opinion is advanced. There has recently 
been a very strong confirmation of my opinion imblished in England. A bill came 
before the House of Commons in England, directed against this kind of butter from 
America, and, after considerable discussion, was defeated by a vote of 75 to .59. In 
the discussion thestro gest opponent to legislation against it was Dr. Lyon Playfair, 
one of the most distinguished chemists and sanitary authorities in England. A pupil 
of Graham and Liebig, he has filled the chairs of chemistry in the Royal Institiitiou 
of Manchester, and at the University of Edinburgh was appointed Chemist to the 
Museum of Practical Geology by Sir Robert Peel, represented the Universities of Ed- 
inburgh and Aberdeen in Parliament, was postmaster-general in the first Gladstone 
cabinet, has been member of several sanitary commissions, and is now a leading 
member of Parliament. In his remarks he stated that " bad butter is a fraud upon 
the ])oor, and oleomargarine would sooner or later drive it out of the market"; he 
" thought that good oleomargarine at one shilling a pound was a great deal better 
and cheaper than bad butter at one shilling fourpencea pound"; and he said that "as 
a general rule the former (oleomargarine) did not become so readily rancid as the lat- 
ter (butter)." 

I w^ould further state that as there is nothing unwholesome in oleomargarine, no 
legislation in regard to this article is necessary to protect the public health. 

I append to this report a copy of the resolutions adopted by this Board on February 
8, 187.S, in response to a resolution of the State senate requesting an opinion; and 
also a copy of a report which I made on March 27, 1880, in response to an inquiry ad- 
dressed to me by Hon. M. R. Wise, chairman of the Committee on Manufactures of 
the House of Representatives. 

All of which is respectfullv submitted, 

C. F. CHANDLER, 

President. 



[Report to the Senate of the State of New York.] 

New York, February 8, 1878. 

To the Honorable the Senate of the State of New York : 

The Board of Health of the Health Department of the City of New York having 
been recjuested to report upon the subject of oleomargarine, by the following resolu- 
tions of the Honorable the Senate of the State of New York : 

"Resolved, That the Board of Health of the City of New York be requested to re- 
port to the Senate at as early a day as possible: 

" 1st. Whether, in the opinion of said Board, oleomargarine is a good and wholesome 
article as food. 

" 2d. That if it is not, what legislation is required to effectually prevent its manu- 
facture and sale. 

":M. That if it is, what additional legislation is necessary to prevent its imposi- 
tion upon the public as pui'e butter, the product of the dairy." 
— has given to the subject due consideration, and is of the opinion: 

1st. That oleomargarine is a good and wholesome article of food. 

2d. That no legislation is necessary to prevent its imposition upon the public as 
pure butter, the product of the dairy, additional to chapter 415 of the laws of 1877. 
All of which is respectfully submitted. 

By order of the Board, 

C. F. CHANDLER, President. 
EMMONS CLARK, Secretary. 

A true copy. 

EMMONS CLARK. 



72 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 



[Letter to Hon. M. E. Wise, Chairman of the Committee on Manufactures, House of Representatives.] 

Health Department, 301 Mott Street, 

New Tork, March 27, 1880. 

My Dear Sir: In reply to your letter of inquiry, I wonld say that I have been fa- 
miliar with the discovery of Mege Mouries and its application in the manufacture of 
artificial butter, called "butteriue," or "oleomargarine," since the date of its first pub- 
lication. 

I have frequently seen it manufactured, witnes.sing all the operations, and examin- 
ing both the matei"ial and the product. 

I have studied the subject with special reference to the question of its use as food, 
in comparison with the ordinary butter made from cream, and have satisfied myself 
that it is quite as valuable as the butter from the cow ; that the material from which 
it is manufactured is perfectly fresh beef suet: that the processes are harmless; that 
the manufacture is conducted with great cleanliness. The product is |)alatable and 
wholesome, and I regard it as a most valuable article of food, and consider the dis- 
covery of M6ge Mouries as marking an era in the chemistry of the fats. 

Butterine is manufactured of uniform quality the year round, and can be sold at a 
price far below that at which ordinary butter is sold. It does not readily become ran- 
cid, and is free from the objectionable taste and odor which characterize a large pro- 
portion of the butter sold in this market. 

I am informed that there are at present thirteen factories in the United States li- 
censed under the patents to manufacture this butter. The Commercial Manufactur- 
ing Company of New York is making at the present from 30,000 to 40,000 pounds daily. 
In addition to this industry there is a large mauufacture of what is kuown as "oleo- 
margarine oil," which is shipped as such to Europe, tobe there converted into butter ; 
so that this product has become an important article of export to foreign countries. 

The beef suet which was formerly converted iuto common tallow, only suitable for 
the manufacture of soap, is, by this beautiful discovery, now manufactured intooleo- 
margaxine oil and stearine of double the value of the tallow formerly produced. The 
following analyses made by Drs. Brown and Mott sufficiently illustrate the composi- 
tion of the butterine: 



Constituents. 



"Water 

Butter solids • - - 

Insoluble fats : 

Olein 

Palniatin 

Stearine 

Arachin 

Myristin 

Soluble fats : 

Butyrin 1 

Cajirin ^ 

Caproin j 

Caprylin J 

Casein 

Salt 

Coloring matter 



No. 1, 
natural butter. 



11.968 
88. 032 



No. 2, 
artificial butter. 



100. 000 
23, 824 
5L 422 



.192 

5.162 

Trace. 



88. 032 



11.203 
88. 797 



100. 000 
24. 893 
56.29 

1.823 

.621 

5.162 

Trace. 



Last wiuter a resolution was adopted by the legislature of the State of New York 
requesting the board of health of the city of New York to investigate the subject, 
and report, whether in its opinion the butterine is a wholesome article of food. In 
response to this resolution, the board of health stated that in its opinion there is no 
sanitary objection whatever to the unrestricted manufacture and sale of this sub- 
stance. 

In support of my opinion herein expressed, I inclose the statement to the same effect 
made by Prof. George F. Barker, of the University of Pennsylvania; Dr. Henry A. 
Mott, jr., of New York; Prof. S. C. Caldwell, of Cornell University; Prof. S. W. 
Johnson, of Yale College ; Prof. C. A. Goessmann, of the Massachusetts Agricultural 
College ; Prof. Henry Morton, of the Stevens Institute of Technology, of Hoboken ; 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 73 

Dr. Charles P. Williams, of Philadalpbia ; Prof. W. O. Atwater, of the Wesleyan 
University at Middletowu, Conn. ; and Professor J. W. S. Arnold, of the medical de- 
partment of the University of New York. 

Hoping that this, my reply, contains all the information you desire, I remain, 
Very respectfully, vours, 

CH. F. CHANDLER, Ph. D., 
Fresident of the Board of Health. 
To Hon. M. R. Wise, 

Chairman of the Committee on Manufactures, 

House of Bepresentatives, Washington D. C. 



[Letter from Professor Barker.} 

University of Pennsylvania, 

Philadelphia, March 22, 1880. 
The United States Dairtj Compann: 

Gentlemen: In reply to your inquiry, I would say that I have beeu acquainted 
for several, years with the discovery of Mege Mouries for producing butterine from 
oleomai'gariue fat. In theory, the process should yield a product resembling butter 
in all essential respects, having identically the same fatty constituents. Tlie butter- 
ine prepared under the inventor's patents is, therefore, in my opinion, quite as valu- 
able a nutritive agent as butter itself. In practice, the process of manufacture, as I 
have witnessed it, is conducted with care and great cleanliness. The butteriue pro- 
diiced is pure and of excellent quality, is perfectly wholesome, and is desirable as an 
article of food. 1 can see no reason why hutterine should not be an entirely satis- 
factory equivalent for ordinary butter, whether considered from the physiological 
or commercial standpoint. 



Respectfully yours, 



GEORGE F. BARKER. 



[Letter from Dr. H. A. Mott, jr., Ph. D., E. M., Analytical and Consiilting Chemist, ofKce 117 Wall 

.street.] 

New York, March 12, 1880. 
United States Dairy Com pan ij : 

Gentlemen : Having been acquainted for the past six years with the process of 
the manufacture of the product called oleomargarine butter, or butterine, and hav- 
ing made numerous microscopical and chemical examinations of the product, I am 
clearly of the opinion that the product called oleomargarine butter is es.sentially 
identical with butter made from cream ; and as the former contains less of those fats 
which, when decomposed, render the product rancid, it can be kept pure and sweet 
for a much longer time. 

I consider the product of the M^ge discovery a perfectly pure and wholesome ar- 
ticle of food, which is destined to supplant the inferior grades of butter, and be 
placed side by side with the best product of the creamery. 
Respectfully, 

HENRY A. MOTT, Jr., Ph. D. 



[Letter from Professor Caldwell.] 

Chemical Laboratory', Cornell University, 

Ithaca, N. Y., March 20, 1880. 

I have witnessed, in all its stages, the manufacture of "oleomargarine" and of 
oleomargarine butter or " butterine." 

The process for oleomargarine, when properly conducted, as in the works of the 
Commercial Manufacturing Company, is cleanly throughout, and includes every rea- 
sonable precaution necessary to secure a product entirely free from animal tissue, or 
any other impurity, and which shall consist of pure fat made up of the fats commonly 
known as oleine and margarine. It is, when thus prepared, a tasteless and inodorous 
substance, po.ssessing no qualities whatever that can make it in the least degree un- 
wholesome when used in reasonable quantities as an article of food. 

In the manufacture of butterine, since nothing but milk, anuotto, and salt, together 
with perhaps a little water from clean ice, are added to this oleomargarine, to be in- 
timately mixed with it by churning and other operations, I have no hesitation in 



74 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

afifirming that this also, when properly made according to the M^ge patent and other 
patents held by the United States Dairy Company, and Avhen nsed in reasonable 
quantities, is a perfectly wholesome article of food; and that, while not equal to fine 
butter in respect to flavor, it nevertheless contains all the essential ingredients of 
butter, and since it contains a smaller proportion of volatile fats than is found in 
genuine butter, it is, in my opinion, less liable to become rancid. 

It cannot enter into competition with fine butter; but in so far as it may serve to 
drive poor butter out of the market, its manufacture will be a public benefit. 

S. C. CALDWELL. 



[Letter from Professor Jolinson.] 

Sheffield Scientific School of YaleCollege, 

New Haven, Conn., March 20, 1880. 
The United States Dairy Company : 

Gentlemen : I am acquainted with the process discovered Ijy M. Mege for produc- 
ing the article known in commerce as oleomargarine or butteriue. 

I have witnessed the manufacture in all its stages, as carried out on the large 
scale, and I can assert that when it is conducted according to the specifications of M. 
M^ge it cannot fail to yield a product that is entirely attractive and wholesome as 
food, and one that is for all ordinary, culinary, and nutritive purposes the full equiv- 
alent of good butter made from cream. 

Oleomargarine butter has the closest resemblance to butter made from cream in its 
external qualities — color, flavor, and texture. It has the same appeai'ance under 
the microscope, and in chemical composition dift'ers not in the nature, but only in the 
proportions of its components. It is therefore fair to pronounce them essentially 
identical. 

While oleomargarine contains less of those flavoring principles which characterize 
the choicest butter, it is, perhaps, for that very reason comparatively free from the 
tendency to change and taint, which speedily renders a large proportion of butter 
unfit foi' human food. 

I regard the manufacture of oleomargarine or butteriue as a legitimate and benefi- 
cent industry. 

S. W. JOHNSON, 
Professor of Theoretical and Afiricullural Chemistry, 
Director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. 



[Letter from Professor Goessmann.] 

Amherst, Mass., March 20, 1880. 
United States Dairy Company, New York : 

Gentlemen : I have visited ou the 17th and 18th of the present month, your fac- 
tory on West Forty-eighth street, for the purpose of studying your mode of applying 
Mage's discovery for the manufacture of oleomargarine butter or butteriue. A care- 
ful examination into the character of the material turned to account, as well as into 
the details of the entire management of the manufacturing operation, has conviaced 
me that your product is made with care, and furnishes thus a wholesome article of 
food. Your oleomargarine butter or butteriue compares in general appearance ani 
in taste very favorably with the average quality of the better kinds of the dairy but- 
ter in our markets. In its composition it resembles that of the ordinary dairy butter; 
iind in its keeping quality, under corresponding circumstances, I believe it will sur- 
pass the former, for it contains a smaller percentage of those constituents (glycerides 
of volatile acids) which, in the main, cause the well-known rancid taste and odor of 
a stored butter. 

I am, very respectfully, yours, 

C. A. GOESSMAN, 
Ph. D., Professor of Chemistry. 



[Letter from Professor Morton.] 

Stevens Institute of Technology, 

Hohoken, N. J., March 16, 1880. 
United States Dairy Company : 

Gentlemen : During the last three years I have had occasion to examine the prod- 
not known as artificial butter, oleomargarine or butteriue, first produced by M. M6ge, 
«f Paris, and described by him in his patent of July 17, 1869. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 75 

I have also frequently witnessed the manufacture of this material, and with these 
opportunities of knowing exactly what it is, I am able to say with confidence that it 
contains nothing whatever which is iuiurioiis as an article of dief. ; but, on the on- 
trary, is essentially identical witli the best fresh butter, and is very superior to much 
of the butter made from cream alone which is found in the market. 

The conditions of its manufacture involve a degree of cleanliness and conseq nt 
purity in the product, snch as are by no means necessarily or generally attainei n 
the ordinary making of butter from cream. 
Yours, etc., 

HENRY MORTON. 

[Letter from Dr. "Williams.] 
s 

Laboratory, No. 912 Samson Street, 
^ Philadtlphia, March 22, 1880. 

During a period of upwards of two years I have been practically familiar with the 
details of the manufacture by the M^ge method of oleomargarine butter or ''but- 
terine." From my experience and observation of the care and cleanliness absolutely 
necessary in the mauufiicture of this product, together with mj knowledge of its com- 
position, I am satisfied that it is a pure and wholesome article of food, and in this 
respect, as well as in respect to its chemical composition, fully the equivalent of the 
best quality of dairy butter. 

I will add further, that, owing to the presence of a less quantity of the volatile fats, 
the keeping qualities of the oleomargarine butter are far superior to those of the dairy 
product. 

CHARLES P. WILLIAMS, Pii. D., 
Analytical Chemist, late Director and Professor Misnouri School of Mines, 

State University. 

[Letter from Professor Atwater.] 

Wesleyan University, 
Middletown, Conn., March 29, 1880. 

I have carefully looked into the theory and the practice of the manufacture of but- 
terine (oleomargarine) by the "Mege process," and examined the product. A con- 
sideration of the materials used, the process of manufacture, and the chemical and 
microscopical character of the butterine, seem to me to fully justify the following 
statements : 

As to its qualitative composition, it contains essentially the same ingredients as 
natural butter from cow's milk. 

Quantitatively, it differs from ordinary butter in haviug but little of the volatile 
fats which, while they are agreeable in flavor, are, at the same time, liable to ran- 
cidity. I should, accordingly, expect butterine to keep better than ordinary butter. 

The best evidence within my reach indicates that just such is the case. The but- 
terine is perfectly wholesome and healthy, and has a high nutritious value. The 
same entirely favorable opinion I find ex])ressed by the most proniiueut European 
authorities — English, French, and German — who are unanimous in their high esti- 
mate of the value of the "Mege discovery,"' and approval of the material whose pro- 
duction has thereby been made practicable. 
I am, very trulv, vours, 

■ W. O. ATWATER. 

[Letter from Professor Arnold.] 

University Physiological Laboratory, 

410 East Tweuty-sixth street, Jjnil 2, 1880. 
This is to certify that I have carefully examined the "Mege Patent Process " for the 
manufacture of oleomargarine butter or butterine; that I have seen and tasted at the 
factory each and every ingredient employed; that I have made thorough microscop- 
ical examinations of the materials used and of the butter; and I consider that each 
and every article eniployed in the manufacture of oleomargarine butter or butterine 
is perfectly pure and wholesome ; that the oleoanxrgariue butter differs in no essential 
manner from butter made from cream ; in fact, the oleomargarine butter possesses the 
advantage over natural butter of not decom])osing so readily, as it contains fewer 
vol atile^ fats. In my oi)inion, oleomargarine is to be considered a great discovery, a 
blessing for the poor, and in every way a i^erfectly pure, wholesome, and palatable 
article of food. 

J. W. S. ARNOLD, A. M.,M. D„ 
Professor Physiology and Histiology, Medical Department, University of New York. 



76 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

The Chairman. You stated at tlie beginniug of your remarks that 
this article of oleomargarine had uever beeu fairly presented to the 
American people. How would j'ou have it presented, on its own merits, 
or in what way ? 

Professor Chandler. On its own merits, of course. The State of 
New York is spending $50,000 a year to disgust people with oleomar- 
garine and artificial butter. I would have no legislation to forbid the 
manufacture or sale of it, but I would forbid the sale of it fraudulently. 
There is no one in the United States who has done more to prevent the 
sale of fraudulent and adulturated food than I have. The milkmen of 
New York City alone paid nearly $50,000 into the city treasury by way 
of fines while I had charge of that business. 

The Chairman. You think this article ought to be s»ld to the con- 
sumer for just what it is ? 

Professor Chandler. Yes ; and we have laws enough to effect that 
object. Congress has passed a law on the subject of food adultera- 
tions, which I took part in drawing up. That law has been adopted 
in New York and other States. As chairman of the sanitary com- 
mittee of the State board of health I attempted to enforce it, but 
while the legislature appropriated $50,000 to hound down this butter, I 
could not get money enough to pay counsel to prosecute cases of adul- 
terated food in New York. We tried to stop the sale of adulterated 
medicines, but could not get an appropriation for the purpose. The 
State board did what it could, but it was not supported. 

The Chairman. Are not the laws in New York in regard to oleo- 
margarine directed towards the compelling of dealers who handle it to 
sell it for what it isf 

Professor Chandler. They are; but the difficulty is that we have 
State officers whose business it is to disgust people with it, and who 
print reports and continue to circulate these absurd stories about the 
unwholesomeness of it. They sell it in Massachusetts for what it is. 

Senator Blair. 1 believe you stated that you indorsed everything 
that Professor Morton stated to the committee. 

Professor Chandler. I do. 

Senator Blair. He says that it is admitted everywhere that coloring 
matter is in it, and that it is innocent in its effects. Do you admit that? 

Professor Chandler. I do. 

Senator Blair. And that the yellow color is introduced to make it 
look more like natural butter than it otherwise would. Now, my ques- 
tion is this: If oleomargarine is to be colored at all, and your object is 
that it shall be sold for what it is, and stand upon its own merits, and 
if the coloring matter that is used is not hurtful or expensive, why 
should not that coloring matter be such as to distinguish oleomargarine 
from butter, and let the two articles go upon the market of dilferent 
colors, so that to the consumer the difference may be made one of actual 
demonstration I 

Professor Chandler. Because the people who want butter want it 
yellow. 

Senator Blair. Do you think that is an answer to my question"? 

Professor Chandler. I do. I think it would be very wrong to com- 
pel the manufacturer to color his product red. 

Senator Blair. Then the people who want to eat oleomargarine could 
do so, and every one could distinguish it. 

Professor Chandler. But when they want to eat it they ^y^^t it 
yellow. 

Senator Blair. Do you think that is a perfectly honest answer? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 77 

Professor Chandler. I do think so, and I tbiuk it would be a great 
hardship to compel people who want to eat oleomargarine to have to 
have it red when they want it yellow. 

Senator Blair. You admit that it is just as healthy as an article of 
food if colored in that way ? 

Professor Chandler. Yes; it is just as wholesome. 

Senator Blair. Is it not colored yellow for the purpose of making a 
more complete imitation of dairy butter? 

Professor Chandler. It is colored yellow because it is butter, just 
as much as the other is butter. 

Senator Blair. Is it dairy butter '! 

Professor Chandler. No, sir; it is not dairy butter; it is artificial 
butter. 

Senator Blair. Please use the two terms so as to distinguish them 
in your answer. Do you understand that this is a controversy between 
butter on the one hand and an article which looks to be actually the 
same thing? 

Professor Chandler. Y'es ; except that it is oleomargarine. 

Senator Blair. But the public who furnish the money to buy the 
article undeivstand they are purchasing «lairy butter. 

Professor Chandler. Tliey do not in Boston. They d(j not where it 
is properly sold without Government interference. 

Senator Blair. Do you belie\ e that one man in a hundred who eats 
oleomargarine understands that lie is not eating dairy butter "I 

Professor Chandler. I do not .sui)pose he does in New Y'^ork State, 
but the inspector in Boston, where tliey have a law to prevent its sale 
for anything but butter, reports that he has found that in almost all 
cases the article is properly sold, and that all means are used of 
informing the customer what it is, and it is bought in small quantities 
by consumers. 

Senator Blair. And at substantially the same price as butter ? 

Professor Chandler, No ; it is chea[)er than butter made from milk. 

Senator Blair. How much cheaper"? 

Professor Chandler. It is sold at wholesale in New Y^ork at present 
for 10.^ cents a ])ouud. 

Senator Blair. 1 am speaking of the price to the consumer. 

Professor Chandler. It is sold at retail at IS cents a pound ; that is 
about the price, as I am told by dealers. 

Senator Blair. And at about the same price in Massachusetts ? 

Professor Chandler. I presume so ; I do not know. 

Senator Blair. Do you know the price of dairy butter in the same 
localities ? 

Professor Chandler. The last time I heard my wife say anything 
about it she was paying 80 cents a pound. 

Senator Blair. Do you understand that is the ordinary price? 

Professor Chandler. It is for some grades. That was the Darling- 
ton butter. 

Senator Blair. I do not care to consume more time, but this 
other question is purely a chemical or scientific one. It is admitted by 
both gentlemen that the coloring matter is not expensive or hurtful, 
I would like to know why there is any objection to employing a differ- 
ent color, so that the articles might be distinguished. Dairy butter 
being naturally yellow, let the oleomargarine be sold with some other 
color. 

Professor Chandler. My objection to that is simply this : In my 
opinion, as soon as poor people find out that they can get an article of 



78 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

food which is just as good as dairy butter for a considerable less price, 
they will buy it for what it is. But they will not want it colored red 
or blue ; they want it yellow. We all want to spread our bread with 
yellow fat ; we do not want to spread it with red fat ; and I do not see 
why the poor people of this country should not be permitted to pur- 
chase butter made artificially if it is just as good and just as whole- 
some as the butter made from cream. 

Senator Blair. And you would add to that, if they have knowledge 
of what they are purchasing. 

Professor Chandler. Certainly. We have laws sufficient already, 
if they are properly enforced, to prevent fraud in butter. They should 
be enforced. That is the way it is done in Europe. The only country 
that has a prohibitory law against the sale of artificial butter is Schles- 
wig-Holstein. France, Germany, Russia, Portugal, Sweden, and Spain 
have no laws against the sale of it. They have strict laws against 
frauds and adulterations in food, but as I said there is no prohibitory 
legislation against artificial butter except in the little state of Schles- 
wig-Holstein. Whether they carry it out or not 1 do not know. 

The Chairman. Sweden has a law which permits it to be sold under 
verj' great restrictions. 

Senator Plumb. Why do you i)ay SO cents a pound for dairy butter 
and use it in the place of this other article, which you say is just as good 
and which you can buy for 18 cents a pound ? 

Professor Chandler. Because my wife has a fancy for it, and if I can 
satisfy her fancy for it I am willing to do it. It makes no ditference to 
me. 1 like oleomargarine, and am perfectly satisfied with it. I have 
bought it and send it to the hospital on Blackwell's Island, of which I 
have charge. 

Senator Blair. Would you regard it as the proper thing to do to put 
it on your table so that your wife and children would eat it as 18-ceut 
butter ? 

Professor Chandler. I did do that. I took some of it and had it 
put upon the table for the use of the family, and they ate it for two days 
without discovering what it was. Then I bought some gilt-edge butter, 
but my wife and family suspected it was oleomargarine, and nothing 
would induce them to touch it. 

I would simply like to say further that I have carefully studied the 
literature of this subject and I have not found, either in this country or 
abroad, any chemist or physiologist who has any standing in the profes- 
sion who has ever uttered an opinion adverse to artificial butter. Certain 
persons who have no standing whatever, in the employ of these parties, 
who are paid by State governments to hound this article of food, have 
put forth statements, and one of them has published pictures attempt- 
ing to disgust people by illustrating what he alleged to be what he saw 
in these compounds under the microscope. His statements are entirely 
without foundation. He made similar ones against the Croton water 
in New York when he had a filter to sell. He i»ubli.shed just such pict- 
ures, showing every conceivable creature as growing in the Croton 
water, in order to disgust people with the water. 

Senator Gibson. Is dairy butter colored ? 

Professor Chandler. Yes, sir; more than half the time. 

Senator Gibson. Is it a product or a manufactured article"? 

Professor Chandler. Butter is a manufactured article just as oleo- 
margarine is a manufactured article. 

Senator Gibson. As a practical chemist, will you tell us some of the 
differences in the manufactured product ? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 79 

Professor Chandler. The finished dairy butter aud the finished 
artificial butter are the same. There is nothing in one not found in the 
other. All the percentages of stearine, palmatin, and olein, aud the 
percentages of water and of salt, are practicall}- the same in the two 
kinds of butter. 

Senator Gibson. Therefore, when you obsers^ed that oleomargarine 
was butter you spoke scientifically. 

Professor Chandler. Yes, sir ; I spoke scientifically, regardless of 
the quesMou in controversy. I was speaking simply of the finished 
article when it is put on the table, and I say they are essential!}^ the 
same thing. 

Senator Gibson. And the coloring process used in the manufacture 
of dairy butter is the same as the coloring process used in the manu- 
facture of oleomargarine "? 

Professor Chandler. It is the same thing exactly, and they color it 
just in the same way. The same coloring matter, annatto, is generally 
used. It is used by the farmer when his cows produce milk that makes 
white butter. 

Senator Gibson. Suppose Congress should pass a bill prohibiting the 
coloring of dairy butter, what effect would that have"? 

Professor Chandler. Dairy butter would not be as acceptable to the 
consumer, aud it would be a bad law. 

Senator Gibson. Suppose Congress required the dairy butter to be 
colored red, would not that protect people against oleomargarine if 
that remained of a yellow color? 

Professor Chandler. Yes; aud it would "boom'' oleomargarine. 

Senator Gibson. Suppose Congress should pass a law providing that 
oleomargarine should be colored yellow, and dairy butter should be 
colored red. Would that be satisfactory or proper, do you think? 

Professor Chandler. No, sir; I think it would be very wrong. 

The Chairman. Perhaps you had better state that the butter made 
from the grass in summer time is naturally yellow. 

Senator Gibson. I desire to add that I come from a country where 
there is as good grass as in IS'ew York. 

The Chairman. You are aware, of course, that the greater proportion 
of butter is not colored at all. 

Senator Gibson. I was brought up around Lexington, Ky., in the 
blue-grass region, where we think we can produce pretty good butter ; 
but the best butter I ever ate was along the Gulf of Mexico, where the 
cows feed on cane, aud it makes the best butter I have ever seen. 

The Chairman. I think it is too broad a statement to say that all 
dairy butter is colored. It is not colored, as a rule, in the summer time j 
but in the winter time it is done to keep it the same color. 

Professor Chandler. About half of the dairy butter is colored, I 
understand. 

Senator Van Wyck. I understood you a few minutes ago, in speak- 
ing of the examinations aud reports made by some chemist or scientist 
connected with the State of ^STew York, to say that the State was pay- 
ing him for circulating reports against oleomargarine. 

Professor Chandler. No, sir; I do not think the gentleman who pub- 
lished the pictures I referred to was connected with the State of New 
York. I meant to say that the State of New York appropriates $50,000 
a year to support what they call the dairy commission, which was 
originated for the sole purpose of interfering with the sale of artificial 
butter. There was no excuse for the passage of the bill to interfere 



80 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

with the sale of bad milk, for we had all the law we wanted, and I was 
enforcing" it as chairman of the State board. 

Senator Van Wyck. Those gentlemen who made this scientific ex- 
amination were professional gentlemen f 

Piofessor Chandler. They may call themselves such, but they have 
no standing. 

Senator Van Wyck. Yoii spoke of their being under pay from some 
source — the class of men who furnish those rei)orts. I want to ask 
you — it would be but fair — whether the scientific gentlemen who are 
here arguing in favor of oleomargarine are doing it simply for the pub- 
lic good, or whether they are paid for their services? 

Professor Chandler. My investigations were made in the interest 
of the city of New York, as. president of the board of health. 

Senator Van Wyck. Then scientific gentlemen are paid on both 
sides f 

Professor Chandler. I do not quite understand your meaning. 

Senator Van Wyck. You said those who spoke against oleomar- 
garine were i)aid b.\ the State. Now, my question is, are not the gentle- 
men who are advocating oleotnargariiie paid in some way, or do they 
do it for the public good? 

Professor Chandler. I say the reason why the public is prejudiced 
against oleonuirgarine and other forms of artificial butter is because 
the State spends $50,000 a year in discrediting it. 

Senator Van Wyck. Precisely. But oleomargarine is advocated 
by equally' distinguished chemists, who are endeavoring to allay this 
public clamor, and they are equally paid, are they not, from some source, 
or do they do this as a labor of love, in the interest of the public? 

Professor Chandler. Oh, no. I presume that the experts who 
have left their homes to come before this committee will receive some 
compensation for it. 

Senator Van Wyck. Then you are on the same tooting so far as com- 
pensation is concerned; the advocates on both sides are compensated? 

Professor Chandler. But it makes a great deal of difierence whether 
a man makes his living solely out of a certain thing, or whether a per- 
son who has made investigations in the public interest is asked to come 
before the committee and his expenses are paid for doing so. 

Senator Gibson. What is the natural color of dairy butter? 

Professor Chandler. It is a pale yellow. 

Senator Gibson. What is the natural color of oleomargarine ? 

Professor Chandler. It is almost white. 

Senator Gibson. So that naturally these two products do differ in 
color ? 

Professor Chandler. . Yes, sir. 

Senator Gibson. And might be detected one from the other? 

Professor Chandler. Yes, sir. There would not be so much differ- 
ence in color in the winter. Winter butter, if not colored, would not 
have much more color than artificial butter uncolored; it would have a 
little more, perhaps. 

I do not kiu)w that 1 have anything further to say, except that I have 
the names here of twenty or thirty of the best chemists in this country 
and abroad, who have committed themselves favorably on this subject. 
Prof. George F. Barker, of the University of Pennsylvania; Prof. S. W. 
Johnston, head of the agricultural experiment station in Connecticut; 
Prof. S. C. Caldwell, who is the professor ot agricultural chemistry at 
Cornell Universitj'; Prof. 0. A. Goessman, of the State Agricultural 
College? of Massachusetts ; Prof. J. W. S. Arnold, who was professor of 



BIITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 81 

physiology in tbe University of the State of New York; Prof. W. O. At- 
water, of tlieWesleyan University at Middletown, Coud., tbe writer of 
the article on bntter in tbe EucyclopaHlia IJritannica; Prof. Adolpb 
Meyer, of Germany, who investigated tbe digestibility of artiticial but- 
ter; Prof. W. n. Brewer, of Yale College; Sir Lyon Playfair, wbo is one 
of tbe most distiiignislied chemists in England, and who was also the 
de})nty S])eaker of the House of Commons. 

Pecently Mr. Anton Jurgens read a papei' before the Society of Arts, 
in M'hicb he apjiroved of it, and was awarded a silver medal for bis 
paper on the subject, and in the discussion which followed. Professor 
Eedwood, Dr. James P)ell, Professor Udling, the chairman, and several 
others spoke heartily in api)roval of artiticial butter. Recently tbe 
Berlin board of health i)nblished a report on tbe subject; in which 
they have brought together everything that has been written; but 1 am 
sorry to say that they have quoted from tbe report of tbe Low commit- 
tee. They do not understand in Germany that when our Government 
investigates a matter it is not done in the same way it is done in Ger- 
many. But their conclusion is, after getting eveiything on the subject 
together, American and foreign, that artificial butter is ])erfectly whole- 
some. They do say, I am bound to exjdain, that if unwholesome mate- 
rials are used, then they may have some fear of it. But so far as they 
know they are not aware of any unwholesome materials being used. 
Alter they read tbe Low report the suggestion came up in their minds 
in regard to the use oi unwholesome material. 

Senator Blair. I understand you object to any legislation, and think 
that any legislation would be wrong which would serve to distinguish 
these two articles tlie one from the other t 

Professor Chandler. I do, but I would have severe penalties im- 
])Osed for tbe sale of oleomaigarine under any name which would create 
the belief in tbe mind of the i)urchaser that it was dairy butter. 

Senator Blair. Why, then, do you object to legislation which would 
seem to enable me to detect the difference between the two and protect 
me against either ? 

Professor Ciiaivdler. Because I think it is unfair and interfering 
with tbe rights of the consumer, who does not want red butter. The 
consumer does not want red butter. 

Senator Blair. Y^ou object to any legislation by which the two arti- 
cles can be by law distinguished from each other. 

Professor Chandler. Yes, because a chemical analysis will always 
distinguish them. 

Senator Jones. He does not mean to say that he objects to any law 
by which people should be put on guard against it. 

Senator Blair. What legislation would you think proper which would 
enable the consumer to tell whether he was eating the one or the other? 

Professor Chandler. Nothing but the labeling of it. 

The Chairman. Do you think it is i)ossible to distinguish the fat of 
an animal that has died by disease and one that has been killed, both 
taken the same length of time after death ? 

Professor Chandler. 1 do not think you could make a marketable 
butter out of tbe fat of diseased animals. 

Senator Blair. Thatisnotmyquestion exactly. What lask is, whether 
scientifically yon could detect the difference between the fat of a hog 
dying this moment of cholera and the fat of a hog killed this moment 
by the butcher, the fat being taken from the two animals at the same 
length of time after death ! 

Professor Chandler. No,. sir; you could not distinguish them. 
17007 OL G 



82 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Mr. Wheeler H. Peckham. Would tbe Seuntorask him whetber be 
could distiiijiuisb tbe butter nuule from diseased milk from tbat made 
of healtby rnilk ? 

Tbe Chaikman. You can answer tbat if you have any knowledge 
about it ; it is not of any im}>ortauce liere. 

Professor Chandler. I do not tbink yon coubl unless in tbe case of 
sucb milk as tbe Paris board of bealtb lias just excluded or jtroposed to 
exclude frou) Paris. It is found tbeie tbat in tbe case of cows sufteriug 
from tuberculosis or consumi)tion tbe milk is cbarged witb tbe germs 
of consumption, according- to a recent statement 1 bave seen. If tbat 
is tbe case, 1 bave never seen any sucb; tbose germs would get into 
tbe butter and one could take tbem into a laboratory and cultivate tbem 
and inoculate tbem and in tbat way migbt detect tbe presence of tbose 
germs, ])rovided tbey are alive wben tliey get to bis bands. 

Tbe Chairman. Don't you tbink tbe salting i)rocess in butter would 
kill tbose germs tbe same as you admit it would tbe germs found in 
oleomargarine ? 

Professor Chandler. -I was talking about tricbin.Te worms tben, but 
tbe germs in tbe case I S])eak of are not so easily killed. 

Tbe Chairman. Do you desire to make any furtber statement! 

Professor Chandler, I tbitdc of notbing furtber at i)iesent. 

Tbe Chairman. Tben tbe committee will stand adjourned until to- 
morrov\" morning at 10 o'clock. 

Tbe committee tben adjourned. 



WASHiNaTON, D. C, Wednesday, June 10, 1886. 

Tbe committee was called to order at 10.15 o'clock a. m. 

Tbe Chairman. 1 bave received no information from the gentlemen 
who desired to be beard to-day as to bow many of tbem desire to speak, 
or bow much time tbey wish to occupy. If some one will give me tbe 
names of tbe parties who desire to be beard this morning, we will call 
them in their order. I suppose they bave selected among themselves 
those who are to s[)eak and whom they wish to have heard. 



STATEMENT OF JAMES F. BABCOCK. 

Prof. James F. Babcock, of Boston, Mass., then addressed the com- 
mittee: 

I am a chemist by i)rofessiou. At present I occupy a position which 
our statutes require all mayors of cities to fill by appointment, namely, 
that which is called wnth us in Boston inspector of milk. By our stat- 
utes, inspectors of milk are also charged with the enforcement of the 
laws in regard to butter and some other food products. 

I have been asked to state to tbe committee what facts bave come to 
my knowledge and observation in tbe i)rocess of carrying out the laws 
which we bave in Massachusetts, and more especially as applied to 
Boston. Tbe committee doubtless are familiar in general witb tbe 
character of tbe law which we bave in Massachusetts, which, I will say 
in brief, is simply one which provides tbat oleomargarine, butterine, 
imitation butter, and sucb goods shall be sold in marked tubs, and 
sold at retail in marked papers. In pursuance of the execution of tbat 
law, our plan in Boston has been this — but I will say before I come to 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTSl. 83 

Speak on that subject, that the city of Boston, in the hist year and the 
present year, has ajtpropriated a very aenerDus sum of money lor the 
carrying on of this department, for it is made a department in the city 
government. They have ai)proi)riated $9,i)()(). Tiu'y furnish us a well 
equipped laboratv^ry, we have four assistants, two of whom remain 
away employed constantly upon the street, a part of their time in re- 
gard to matters relating to milk and a ]>art of their time in regard to 
butter aud oleomargarine. These men are called collectors of samples. 
They make daily reports. They not only take samples of milk, but they 
visit places where oleomargarine and butter are sold, to see that the 
l»arties selling those goods comply with the law. They make a written 
rejjort in every case, upon a blank which is provided for that purpose, 
giving the date, the time of the day when the inspection was made, the 
I>roi)rietor\s name, i)lace of business, «&(•., whether he keei)S butteriue 
or not, and whether it is i)roi)erly marked. A leciord is made of all 
these inspections. 

In the case of retail dealers, grocers, and provision men who sell 
these goods at retail, we tind that some of them do not have the papers 
marked as the statute requires ; that is, the^' have no !)apers at all. We 
find almost universally tliat the tubs are marked upon the top ami side 
as required by the law. We find that to be the case with the wholesaler 
almost universally. There have been some exceptioiss and some prose- 
cutions have resulted, but the great majority ol tne <lealers, both whole- 
sale aud retail, have their tubs marked. If we tind a retailer who is 
selling these goods at retail and who has no mari<ed papers, we send him 
a printed notice, such a one as 1 have in my hand, and which I will pre- 
sent to the committee, merely calling his attention to that fact. It is 
what we call a warning. 

The paper submitted by the witness is as follows: 

Crrv oi'" BosTox, 
Offick of Inspector of Milk, Butthk, and Vinegar, 

11,51 Washington xiri'ct, Boston, , 188-. 

Yon are bereby notified tliat a conipouud made in iiintatiou of batter, and not made 
exclusively of milk or cream, and known as oleomai-Lrarine, butterine, or imitation 
butter, bas been found in your possession witb intent to sell, tlie same not being 
marked as required by tlie statutes. You are respectfully notified that the sale of 
such compound not properly marked, or the possession or custody of the same with 
intent to sell, renders you liable to the peuabies provided by the public statutes. 
Further information will be furnished on personal application to this office. 
Respectfully, 



Inspector. 

All these people who sell goods in this way without marked papers are 
not those who are selling the goods for what they are not, but they are 
in many cases the owners of small stores or new ])lacesof business, where 
they do not know what the provisions of the statute are, and that is a 
notice to inform them. These notices are all numbered, as you will ob- 
serve. It is torn off from a book with a stub, aud a record is made on 
the stub of that notice, and after the notice is sent, in a week or two, 
the same collector visits the place, and it is found that in almost every 
ease — I should say in 95 per cent, of the cases where notices are sent — 
that they have complied with the law in consequence of receiving that 
notice. The number of inspections which we make in this way, and 
iiave made, is a matter of record. The number of these warnings which 
have been sent out is recorded on the stubs, so that we are able to state 
witii comparative certainty the number of cases in the city of Boston 



84 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

of stores uliicli sell butter and oleo!iiar<;ariiie and imitation batter, 
"wbo are and are not selbuf; in accordance witb the jjrovisious of tbe 
statute — not necessarily doinfi' it fraudulently in all cases. 

1 will jiive some tiyures to tbe committee on tbis subject. In Janu- 
ary of tbis yeai- our collectois I'cported tbree bundred and sixty tbree 
inspections. Forty tive of tliose inspections resulted in i)arties receiving 
a notice similar to tbe one wbicli ,\ on bave. Jf 1 ba\e fi^uured it cor- 
rectly, tbat is 1LM2 per cent. In February ibree bundred and sixty- 
seven ins])ections were made and tbirtytive waininj^s jziven. J bave 
otber fi,uures beie for tbe montbs of jNIarcb, April, and May, wbicb I 
will band to tbe leixirter, as 1 do not desire to occujty too mucb time. 
I wdl say, bowever, tbat tbe wbole number of inspections made since 1 
bave beld tbe jjosition wbicb 1 now bold, wbicb covers a ])eriod of about 
a year and four or five montbs, is 3,371, and tbe number of wai iiiugs of 
tbis kind issued up to tbe 1st day of June was 294. Tbe i)ercentage is 
easdy figured out, and is about 9 or i»erbaps 10 per cent. 

In view of tbese tacts, tbese figures, and tbese insjjections, wbicb are 
made systematic dly, 1 say, witbout tear of contradiction, tbat tbe laws 
of tbe State of JMassacbusetts, in tbe city of Boston, aic enforced as 
well as any law can be. We bave laws against various crimes, against 
robbery, yet tbei-e aie complaints of robbery and assault, and tbere 
bave also been comiilaints against i)arties wbo bave sold tbese goods in 
violation of law. Tbose cases, bowever, are tbe exception and not tbe 
rule. 

It bas been within my knowledge, and is witliin my knowledge at tbe 
present time, tbat tbere are tbousands of persons in tbe city of Bostou 
wbo buy butterine, knowing: i)erfectly well what they are buying — wbo 
call for butterine, wbo pay tbe price of butterine, and wbo receive it iu 
a pai)er marked as tbe statute requires of tbem in tbose cases. Tbe 
marking, so far as tbose jiersons are concerned, is unnecessary, because 
tbey know what tbey are buying. But tbe dealer must nuuk it whether 
tbe i)erson kno\\s it or not. Not only are tbese goods marked ui)on tbe 
tubs and nuuked uixui the papers provided for tbe retail sales, but I 
know of a great many dealers in Boston wbo in addition to what tbe law 
requires mark their goods by banging a large sign directly over tbe tub 
or tbe ice chest or refrigerator wbere tbe goods are kept. I bave iu 
mind at the i)reseut time a new store wbicb bas only been started 
witbiu a couple of weeks at tbe soutb end in Boston, fitted up, I bad 
almost said witb elegance, a store for selling dairy products. They bave 
a refrigerator witb some uine or ten compartments in it, witb glass 
doors, and nine of tbese contain butter and one of tbem contains but- 
terine. Tbe butterine is marked by a sign banging over tbat ])lace 
witb letters 1 should say three inches long; the price of it is marked — 
15 or 10 cents, the retail price — and tbe prices of all tbis butter, rang- 
ing from IS, 11), and 20 cents up to 30 and So cents per pound at tbis 
season of the year, are also indicated. 

You A\ill find in tbe same way, in tbe market located in that section of 
tbe city, wliere tbe patronage is chiefly from poor i)eople, tbat tbese 
goods are exposed for sale and tbe name is marked upon tbe goods. A 
gentleman iu Soutb Boston, a very respectable grocer, wbose uame I 
could give to tbe committee if necessary, said to me only last Saturday, 
speaking of tbese goods — I will say tbat be bad two tubs of butter and 
oue tub of butterine, and bis butterine and papers were marked — be 
was speaking to me of tbe sale of tbese goods to poor people. He said 
tbat a regular customer of bis bad said to bim only a few days before 
tbat tbe butterine wbicb be bad bought during tbe winter for 15 cents a 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 85 

pound had enabled bini to jiive his boy butter to eat ; he called it butter, 
but butterine is what he boufjht. These .i^oods are spoken of in that 
general way as butter, although they are substitutes for butter. Tliis 
man said that the sale of butterine at 15 cents a pound had enabled his 
boy to have butter during the winter; otherwise he would have had 
to go without. He said his boy had never eaten any butter in his life, 
and the man spoke of the goods as being something wliich he regarded 
it a privilege to buy. 1 say it cannot be disputed that in the city of 
Boston, and in souie of our large numufacturing cities in Massachusetts, 
such as Fall River, Lawrence, and Lowell, there are thousands of pounds 
of oleomargarine and butterine, imitation butter, sold to peoph? who 
know perfectly well what they are buying, who call tor it, and who could 
not be cheated in regard to it; they know what it is worth. 

Senator Jones. Do they buy it for themselves and their families, or 
to feed boarders on? 

Professor Baecock. They buy it for themselves and their families; 
they do not keei) boarders. A poor man with a family of four or tive 
has ail the boarders he can take care of. It is undoubtedly sold lo and 
bought by bOarding-house keepers, saloon and restaurant keepers, and 
it is certainly true that they do not put any mark upon it wiien they 
put it on tlieir tables. There is a large sale in that direction. But the 
])eople who buy it for their own consumption are very numerous and 
know very well wliat they are buying. 

The Chairman. Do your insi)ections of these dairy i)ro(lucts go out- 
side of the city of Boston ? 

Prolessor Babcock. No, sir; not officially. What [ know in regard 
to this matter outside ot the city of Boston is oidy a matter of informa- 
tion from conversation with other inspectors or members of boards of 
health, &c. 

The Chairman. For what purpose do you appear before the commit- 
tee? 

Professor Babcock. 1 was requested by some of the gentlemen inter- 
ested in tlie manufacture antl sale of oleomargarine to state to the com- 
mittee the figures and results of our inspections in the city of Boston. 
I want to say further that we think, in Massachusetts, that our health 
laws are enforced as well or better than in any other State. The gen- 
tleman who is now the chairman of our State board of health was elected 
president at the last meeting, in Washington, of the National Health 
As.vociatiou — 1 refer to Dr. Walcott — and our State board of health, in a 
rei)ort which may be ibund among the Massachusetts documents in 1883, 
three years ago, discussed this question of oleomargarine in its relation 
to the public health, and their leport and their conclusions are printed 
in that document. Uixm that board was Mr. Thonms Talbot, ex-gover- 
nor, and Mr. John Fallon, who for many years was superintendent of 
the Pacitic Mills, in Lawrence, which, as some of the committee may 
know is one of the largest cotton mills in the worhl. Tiiey reported as 
follows in regard to oleomargarine. They say that "ic is inferior to the 
best butter, but is much superior to the low grades of butter to be com- 
monly found in the markets." So far as its iiiliuence on health is con- 
cerned they say they can see no objection to its use. They say "its sale 
as genuine butter is a commercial fraud, and as such very proi)erly con- 
demned by law." They go on to say, as to its prohibition by law, that 
the same law which j)rohibited it could also proliibit the sale of lard and 
tallow, and more especially of low-grade butters, whi(;h are f.tr more 
injurious to health than a good, sweet article of oleomargarine. 



86 , IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Senator Blair. Yon say in speaking- of its sale tbey say in a certain 
contingency it is a commercial Irand? 
Professor Babcock. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. Wonld tbe\ consider, or would yon consider, the sale 
of it to a man who e:.ts it as a sale f 

Professor Babcock. Certaiidy I should consider that a sale. 
Senator Blair. If it is sold to him in such a way that he does not 
kn.'iw whal he is eating, is that a commercial fraud ? 

Professor Babcock. Yes, 1 should regard that as a commercial fraud. 
In this report I lefer to the board say: ''A great (U'al has been said 
abort a noor grade of fats, of which oleomargarine is made. Any one 
making such an assertion in regard to fats is simply ig-norant of the 
■whole subject. When a fat has become iu the least tainted it can no 
longer be used for this puri)ose, as it is impossible to reaiov^e the odor 
from the fat after it has once acquired it. The use of a substitute for 
butter seems to be steadily on the increase in this country. When good 
butter is from W to 50 cents a pound it has passed beyond the means 
of persons of moderate circumstances, aiid they have the ciioice of three 
things — to do without, to use poor butter, or to use some substitute." 
That is the iiublislu-d official statement of tlic state bond of health of 
Massachusetts, and 1 indorse every hue of it. 1 believe it to be true. 
I do not know !hat the committee care to hear anything- frotn me as to 
my particular views as to the purity or wholesomeness of butter further 
than what has been expressed in this report of the Massachusetts State 
board of health. 

The Chairman. You state that under your law the retail dealer has 
his tubs marked and has the wra[>ping-paper ])rinted with tlie word 
"oleomargarine" or "butteriue"' on it, which he has to put on tiie arti- 
cle when sold! 

Professor Babcock. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. Is it not possible that the retail dealer, having- both 
butter and oleomargarine m the same shop, could constantly sell oleo- 
margaiine to a customer without putting the paper on it, and as but- 
ter? 

Professor Babcock. He ceitainly could. 

The Chairman. Without being caught by the consumer at all ? 
Professor Babcock. He certainly could; he miglit. 
The Chairman. And any law that would more ert'eetually guard and 
prevent that condition o! affairs would be desirable, would it not ? 

Proiessor Babcock. Any law which wonhl more effectually prevent 
the sale of oleomargarine for what it is not I should be glad to have 
passed by the national legislature or by our State legislature. 

The Chairman. Your inspectors, of course, do not stay in every re- 
tail dialer's s1k>p to see that every pound of oleomargarine is put up in 
an olecmaigaiine paper? 

Profet-soi Babcock. ]So, sir. But there are certain dealers that we 
regard with suspicion. We take means to see whether or not the goods 
are sold in the.'-e ])iip«rs by eni])loying- ])eisons lo occasionally go into 
such stores on Satniday nights wlien there is a rush of business, when, 
if ev< r, they aie .'■elling these goods iraudulently, and buy a pound or 
two jiouuds, or whatever small (juantity is desired, and carry it away, 
and we have found that in the great majority of cases these goods are 
marked. It must be admitted that there are some persons who violate 
the law, but they will always do it. 

The Chaikman. The tem| tation would be very great to sell it at a 
pr( fit of 10 or lli cents a pound ? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. , 87 

Professor Babcock. For a dishonest uiaii, yes; for an honest man, 
no. There are people wlio will sell you a piece of cloth to-day, and who 
will say it is all wool, knowing that it is not. They will tell you it is 
all wool, and they get the price of all-wool goods. The increased price 
is a temptation, and as long as these goods can be bought at or 10 
cents a pound some dishonest man will take the risk and chance of sell- 
ing the goods for what they are not. A man will sell you a piece of 
American silk and tell you it is a foreign siik, if he thinks you have a 
prejudice against American silks. 

The Cdaieman. Any law that more thoronghly gnards that retail 
sale, then, is desirable, I suppose? 

Professor Babcock. Yes; I shonld be strongly in favor of that. 

Senator Blaik. You are an inspector. Have you any means of ob- 
taining data which you could give to the committee which would be 
a guide to it as to the amount of oleomargarine that is consumed in your 
vicinity, or within your jurisdiction as an inspector, and as to the rela- 
tive amount as between that and butter? 

Professor Babcock. Yes, 1 can do so a]>proximately. In a report 
which I have here, and which I will hand to committee, you can 
obtain some idea of the character of the work which is done in Boston. 
I have given an estimate of the amount of butter and oleomargarine, 
based on the most reliable figures which I could obtain, sold in Boston. 
I will say in regard to these figures, however, that from such informa- 
tion as 1 have received since the publication or the printing of this report, 
which was on the 1st of January of the present a ear, J have reason to 
believe that the figures I have given in tliis report as to the amount of 
oleomargarine received in Boston and from there sent out, not only 
through the State of Massachusetts but to adjacent States, is some- 
what o\ erestimated. The amount is, probably, considerably less than 
the figures I have given here. But the figures which I did give in this 
report are ti^ follows: 

The total number of pounds, estimated, was 9,94.5,725 of oleomarga- 
rine. In this calculation, let me say, [ was assisted l)y a member of 
the Produce Exciiange of Boston who is not favorably disi>osed towards 
oleomargarine, so that this .statement doubtless is high rather than low 
as an estimate. You will find the details of these tigures in the rc[)ort. 
As I say I believe these figures are too high, but the value of that 
amount of oleo, at the average wholesale value of IH cents a pound, 
was -$1,143,758.37. The total number of pounds of butter was 
24.400,111, which, at the average wholesale [)rice of 20 cents, amounts 
to $4,880,022.20. 

Senator Blaik. Those figures cover what territory ? 

Professor Babcock, They represent the quantity received in Boston 
at the Produce Exchange and from there distributed. 

Senator Blair Where did it come from ? 

Professor Babcock. I got those figures from the books of the Pro- 
duce Exchange so far as they are capable of giving the figures, and a 
part of them are estimated. 

Senator Blair. When you say "oleo" you mean "oleomargarine"?" 

Professor Babcock. Yes, sir. 

Senator ]^>LAiii. And from what points is that amount collected ? 

Professor Bab(;ock. In Boston we have two factories. There is a 
factory in Providence which sends goods to Boston, and the Western 
factories send their goods there. 

Senator Blair. Can you give us an idea of the proportion in which 
these several localities furnish you oleomargarine tor that market ? 



88 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Professor Baecock. Yes, sir; approximately. Tliere is made in or 
near Boston abont 150,000 packages. 

Senator Blair. How much is contained in a package ? 

Professor Babcock. At an average of U5 pounds to the package. 
Tbe rest of it comes from other sections; from the West and from New 
York. 

Senator Blair. But butter is mainly, I suppose, collected from New 
England ? 

Professor Babcock. No, sir; a good deal of Western butter comes 
to Boston. 

Senator Blair. From how far west? 

Professor Babcock. As tar west as it is produced — from Wisconsin 
and Iowa. New England does not ])roduce butter enough to sujiply 
her own needs. 

Senator Blair. Hardly enough tONnpi)ly her own rural regions — the 
smaller cities and villages. 

Professor IJabcock. 1 understand that to be the fact. 1 will say one 
single word in regard to the nnitter of testimony taken before this com- 
mittee at a former session, which I I'cad from the stenographic rei)ort 
which has been i)rinted. .v gentleman from Boston stated that the law 
was not ejiforced in Boston, and he relates certain circinnstani;es which, 
I think, the committee ought to know occurred some live or six years 
ago, so that what he said does not api)ly at all to the present condition 
of things. You may remember that it was stated that he sought to 
have ceitain ])arties comj)lained of. and that the then milk inspector, 
Mr. Griflin, di-clined to make a prosecution because there was no money 
to pay for it. Now the lacts in that case were these: There were four 
complaints, which were instigated by members of the Produce Ex- 
change. They came to the then milk inspectoi'; samples were taken; and 
at that time 1 was doing the chemical woik for the oftice, and I made an 
analysis. I ai)i)eared before the grand jury; true bills were found, and 
when it was discovered that true bills were found against certain 
people who not only sohl butterine quietly, but occasionally bought 
some butter also (f members of the I'roduce Exchange, these gentle- 
men came before the district attorney, and at their rei)resentation 
those cases were put on tile. That is ihe reason tiiey were nor [)rose- 
cuted then. There was a_ party in Boston whom I had occasion to 
presecute this spring for selling goods not marked as lequired by law, 
which came from the >tate of Wisconsin. Some gentleman here may 
know the goods. 1 think they were marked "Eureka Creamery," and 
the "Horse-Shoe Creamery" isanotlieronewhich we know peilectly well. 
They are both high grades of butterine. They aie made and intended 
to be sold by these people there as a substitute for butter, and the 
l)eople who have them do not mean to mark them if they can hel[> it. 

The Chairman. You mean they are intended to be sold as butter? 

Professor Babcock. Yes, 1 think they are. 

Senator Blair. Where is that butterine made? 

Professor Babcock. 1 do not remember where the HorseShoe Cream- 
ery is made, but *.he Eureka Cieamery is nuule, 1 think, in the town of 
Eureka in Iowa or Wisconsin ; I think Iowa. A party had some of those 
goods. The membeis of a tirm were complaiiu-d of and they paid their 
tine the next day and marked all the goods they wanted to keej), and 
the rest they shipped back. One of the gentlemen who bought some of 
these goods from this tirm was complained of, and he came to me through 
a friend, a member of the Produce Exchange who does not believe in 
oleomargarine at all, with this proposition : He says this party — we will 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 89 

call bim Mr. B. — did not eare aiiythiiiiu^ abont tlie fine, but be was a dea- 
con of tbe cburcb, and be did not want it to appear tbat be bad been 
convicted of selling tbese goods. He said: ''Yon know we bave been 
contribnting money to pay tbe expenses of counsel and otber expenses 
towards baving tbis matter investigated at Wasbington. but if you would 
consent to bave Mr. B.'s case put on file, Mr. B. would be willing to con- 
tribute 8100 to tbat fund." 1 said : " 1 do not know anytbing about Wasb- 
ington, but we bave a State law and Mr. Batcbelor — tbat is bis name; 
1 (iid not intend to give it, but it bas i«lii)ped ont — Mr. Batcbelor bas 
violated tbat law and be ougbt to jiay tbe penalty," and be did. 

Tbe Chairman. I do not tbink your jHlministration of affairs bas 
been questioned before tbe committee, but tbat is all rigbt. 

Professor Babcock. 1 desire to bave tbe committee know tbat tbere 
is at least one sjiot on tbe face of tbe eartb wbere oleomargarine is sold, 
in tbe great majority of cases, for wbat it is; and wbat is done in Bos- 
ton can be done in every city of tbe country if tbe macbinery of tbe law 
is providtd. 

Senaior Joines. Has it been any part of your duty to determine 
wbetber tbese snbstitntes foi' butter are injurious to bealtb or not? 

Professor Baecock. It bas not been a pait of my duty to determine 
tbat. 

Senator Jones Have .^ou investigated tbat matter? 

Professor Babcock. I bave. 

Senator Jones. Wbat are your conclnsions on tbat snbject ? 

Pro1es>oi- Babcock. My conclusions are tbat wbat is perfectly good 
on tbe side of a b«e1steak is ])erfe(tly good wben it is melted out and 
mixed witb salt an<l milk. Aly conclusions are, in general, tbat oleo- 
margarine is a ])erfectly wbolesome food in every sense of tbe word. 
Tbeie are sonie i.oints in relation to it in wbicb it is sni»erior t(» butter, 
I refei moie esjiccially to its kee])ing qualities. Yon take an oleomar- 
garine i)rint and i)nt it on ibis table and leaxe it bere for tbree montbs 
alongside oi buttei', and tlie oleonuirgai ine will remain sweet wbile tbe 
butter will ;,ot. 

Tbe CiiAiEMAN. Is tbat any ( vidence ibat it is better Ibod ? 

Professor Babcock. It is no evidence tbat it is better food, but it is 
evidence tbat tbe tat Irom wbicb it is i)re])aied is freer from ibie'gn sub- 
stances. 

Tbe Chairman. Wonld it not equally be evidence tbat it is not as 
easily digested as butter if it will last tbat lengtb of time? Salt meat 
will keep longer tban fresb meat. 

Protessor Babcock. Certainly; but it is p( ifectly bealtbfnl. never- 
tbtless. I jiresnme it must be admitted as a pbysiological fact, at least 
to be debatable, tbat oleomargarine is sligbtly less digestible tban butter. 
But bow mucb less <ligestible? It is not as if oleomargarin*' it<piired 
five bonrs to digest and bntter requiied only a balf anbour or an liour. 
Tbe figures are expressed in mucb closer relations tban tbat. I will not 
undertake to give tbem, but tbe committee can find tbeni in tbe books 
or in tbe investigations of tbose wbo bave considered tbe matter. It 
takes tbree and a balf bours in on<' case and four bours in tbe otber case, 
or sometbing of tbat kin<l. Practically tbere is not any difference, and 
as far as foo<l value is concerned, I do not tbink tbe i)bysiologists bave 
ever differed in tbe opinion tbat oleomargarine bas a bigber food value 
tban butter. I mean by tbat tbat tbe amount of beat-producing quali- 
ties in oleomargarine is greater, tbeoretically, tban in butter, but tbe 
relation still is very close; one is about tbe same as tbe otber. 



90 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

The Chairman. You are a chemist, I uuderstand? 

Professor Babcock. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. Can you undertake to show by an aoalysis of any 
article that is submitted to you what its elfect will be, absolutely, on 
the human system, as to whether it will be a healthful or unhealthful 
food? 

Professor Babcock. In some cases, yes, and otliers, no. 

The Chairman. In what cases yes? 

Professor Babcock. In cases yes, many of the absurd substnnces 
which are found in the patents which have been taken out — alleged im- 
provements in the manufacture of oloomargarinp. If there was any 
sulphuric acid in butterine we should tiiid it. If there were any of the 
thousand and one things in those patents which could only make a 
chemist laugh, and the judicious friend of the jntor grieve, present in 
oleonuirgarine, we could find them chemically. We could nor find the 
geims of disease. You cannot find the germs of typhoid fever in milk, 
but they get in there. 

Senator Jones. Eave you examined specimens of these substances 
frequently ? 

Professor Babcock. Yes; we make analyses of them, and some of 
them are given in this book mendy to determine whether or not tliey 
are butter or oleomargarine. 

The Chairman. You can determine by your analysis whether a lood 
product contains any known poison, I suppose? 

Professor Babcock. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. But, can you undertake to show by'an analysis of 
all facts what their exact elfect would be upon the human system with- 
out going through the experiment of having the articles fed to individ- 
uals ? 

Professor Babcock. We certainly should not undertake to do that. 
That is a physiological experiment. The way to find out whether a 
thing is poison or not, supposing it to be a new poison of which chem- 
ists know nothing, is not to aualyize it and saj' what it is and give it a 
name, but to fin<l out whether it is a poison or not you want to try it, 
so to speak, on a dog, and if you try it on a dog and it does not kill him 
or i)roduce a marked effect, we say that it is not a poison. If it does 
produce an effect, we say it is a poison, and we study it further. 

The Chairman, If you take a food product and analyze it and find 
no known i)oison in it, then you can give a scientific and absolute opin- 
ion as to the healthfulness or unhealthfuluess of it; but is it not neces- 
sary that there should be a long experiment in the use of that article, 
as food, in order to determine what its ultimate effects on the human 
system will be? 

Professor Babcock. Certainly. 

The Chairman. Have you made that experiment? 

Professor Babcock. I have not made the experiment, but the publiii 
have been making them for ten years. 

The Chairman. The public, have been nniking them without know- 
ing they were making them, and therefore we have no results. They 
did not know whether they were eating butter or oleomargarine. 

Professor Babcock. As I was saying, a dose of poison would kill a 
man whether he knows it or not. If you have some strychnine in your 
food i)ut there by accident or <lesign, you may think it is wholesome, 
but it will kill you. 

Senator Blair. Have not any of those peoi)Ie died within tenyears? 

Professor Babcock. I never heard of it. 



IMITATION DAIRY PEODUCTS. 91 

Senator Blair. Is^oiie of those oleomargarine people liave died witbin 
ten years? 

Professor Babcock. I never heard of it. 

The Chairman, Have j'ou ever made any experiments in the way 
of feeding oleomargarine to [lersons and judging of its effects as distin- 
guished from butter? 

Professor Babcock. No, sir; and there have never been any physio- 
logical experiments made in regard to butter which is put on bread, or 
on the bread itself merelj^ to determine whether it be wholesome. If 
you ask me how I know bread is wholesome, I could not point you to 
any scientific experiments to establish the fact. 

The Chairman. You could probably point to the experiments which 
have been going on for a thousand years? 

Professor Babcock. Yes; and that is what I base my opinion on. 

The Chairman. But in regard to oleomargarine, we have not had 
that sort of experience yet. What I wante<l to get at was the ground 
of your statement of your belief that it was a wholesome food. So ftir, 
I tind it has been simply a scientific opinion based upon an analysis 
to determine the elements in it. We were told yesterday, for instance, 
that lard was substantially the same in its constituent elements as oleo 
after the stearine had been extracted from the tallow. Do you under- 
tak<3 to say, or do you believe that lard, as an article of footi, is as health- 
ful as tallow or butterf 

Professor Babcock. I see no reason why it is not as healthful as tal- 
low or butter? 

The Chairman. Do you think it is considered to be so by people gen- 
erally ? 

Professor Babcock. I think well informed i)Cople hold that opinion. 
I will explain to you the ground of my belief if you will allow me. The 
objection to pork is well founded, but the fat of the hog tried out and 
purified, so far as I have ever heard, is no more objectionable than any 
other similar fat, whether of beef or whether it is i)roduce<l from a veg- 
etable product such as olive oil or cotton seed oil. 

The Chairman. Is it not generally held as an opinion by the major- 
ity of peojde, cooks, liousewives, and others, that the use of much lard 
in cooking is not healthful? 

Professor Babcock. That is true, but it is not because it is lard. 
The use of any fat in excess is undoubtedly objectionable. The man 
who puts a piece of butter on his bread larger than the bread itself 
will have dyspepsia after awhile. It is not because it is lard, but be- 
cause it is fat. The epicure who covers his lettuce with olive oil will 
suffer in the same way. 

The Chairman. Do you think lard is as healthful as beet fat ? 

Professor Babcock. Pure lard is as healthful as anv other animal 
fat. 

The Chairman. And you base that opinion on the chemical fact tliat 
they are very nnich alike in their elements? 

Professor Babcock. Yes. 

Senator Blair. Why is pork uidiealthful ? 

Professor Babcock. In the first place, hogs are fed in a great variety 
of ways. Some are kei)t well and some are fed on filth. Those which 
are ke{)t well furnish a perfectly liealthful meat, except so far as trichi- 
nae may develoi) in them, and that does not come in the fat, but is de- 
veloi)ed in the nuiscular fiber. 

The Chairman. Leaving out trichinae, why is the meat of pork fed 
upon refuse any better than the fat, when there is no disease, but simply 
healthy fat? 



92 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Professor Babcook. For tlie same reason that the milk from a well- 
fed, carefully tended cow is better than the milk of a cow fed on swill 
and slops. 

The Chairman. But I understood you to say that the fat of the hog- 
in the one case was good, and the meat was not healthful in the same 
animal. 

Professor Babcock. If I should draw a line between the two, I should 
say that the fat from the hog- would be less affected by changes of con- 
dition, as regards feeding and Keeping, than any other portion of the 
animal, unquestionably. 

Senator JSlair. You seem to have had great experience with this 
subject, and, in discussing the matter of legislation awhile ago, you 
dropped the expression that you thought any judicious national legis- 
lation that could be had would be a good tl)ing. I won hi be very glad 
to hear your views in that diiection as to what national legislation 
would be serviceable. 

Professor Babcock. Any national legislation which would establish 
a uniform law for all tlie States, in the direction of having the goods 
marked, and other i)rovisions of a similar nature, so that they might be 
sold for what they are, would be of advantage. In Massachusetts we 
have a certain law in regard to the matter. In the West they have no 
law. Massachusetts cannot make a law which shall recpiire these goods 
to be marked before they come into the State, so that they naturally 
come into the State unmarked. We do the best we can to follow these 
goods to their market as soon as they come. I say without fear of con- 
tradiction that that is the case. 

The Chairman. Let us see how that operates right there. These 
goods come, as you state, from outside points in the west and come 
marked as creamery butter with certain brands. 

Professor Babcock. Xo, sir; they do not; that is the exception. I 
will tell you how they come. 

The Chairman. I understood you to state a short time ago that two 
or three kinds came into your state marked with the brand of a certain 
creamery, and you gave the name of the creamery. 

Professor Babcock. But not marked creamery butti?r. The words 
were " Eureka Creamery." 

The Chairman. Everybody knows that butter is made from milk and 
the use of the words "Eureka Creamery," without any qualifying word, 
would be a deception. If you see a hrkin that has something that looks 
like butter in it, and it is branded "Eureka Creamery" on the top of 
it, you would naturally say that it was butter which came from that 
creamery. 

Professor Babcock. Yes, unless otherwise marked. 

The Chairman. Is it possible; the bulk of it coming branded in that 
way, that even in Boston you are able to detect it, or to prevent its 
sale? How are you to do it except by an analvsis of each particular 
lot? 

Professor Babcock. We get accustomed to seeing the tubs and know 
their geneial ai)pearance, the numbei- of hoops on them, and sometimes 
they have them marked with a brand, a diamond H. N. P., or what not, 
and there are a great many of those goods that we know are oleomar- 
garine, even if the mark is turned around on the other side. We know 
the tubs. And while, as I said a moment ago, some goods have been 
brought into Boston marked in the way 1 say, and those cases have 
been prosecuted, the great niajority of goods are immediately marked 
alter they are received. Some goods come from Chicago already marked. 



IMITATION DAIRY PKODIICTS. 93 

There are some agencies in Boston wlio liave their goods marked in 
Chicago, and they are received in Boston marked. The l*rovidence 
Dairy, which is the name of a manufacturing concern there, which 
mannractuies oleomargarine, send their goods to Boston, and they are' 
all marked before they come there. The oleomargarine folks in Jioston 
mark their goods, but their goods come from States outside of Massa- 
chusetts wliere they have no law, and of course they cannot be com- 
pelled to urark them. But when those goods are received at tlie store 
they are marked and we Ibllow them uj). 

The Chairman. If theie was some general law requiring that all this 
material, wherever made, should be branded, you think it would be 
beneticifd f 

Professor Babgock. Yes; it would be a benetit to any State where 
they have laws, to the State of ISVw Jersey or Connecticut. 

The Chairman. And it would aid you in carrying out your State 
law f 

Professor Babcock. Yes, and I shouhl be vejy willing to see any 
reasonable ])rovision of that kind eiuicted. 

Senator Blair. This inspection you have been familiar with is mainly 
for the city of Boston ? 

Professor Babcock. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. I would like to know to what extent a like inspection 
is followed up throughout the commonwealth ? 

Professor Babcock. There is nothing like it in detail, because in the 
smaller cities they cannot afford to pay the money which is necessary, 
or to anything like the extent provided in Boston. But there are local 
inspectors in those places, and the State board of health have men 
who are collecting samples around the State, and they see to the en- 
forcement of the law in other parts of the State. Violations of such a 
law as we have are undoubtedly prac-ticed outside of Boston, if at all, 
much more frequently than in Boston, because the law is not enforced 
to that extent. 

Senator Blair. I suppose the efficient administration is all in its 
details. 

Professor Babcock. Undoubtedly. The goods that leave Boston are 
marked, and so far as those goods are concerned, I am sure that the 
goods received in cities of the commonwealth comply with the provisions 
of the law. 

Senator Blair. Does the coloring- matter used do any harm to either 
butter or oleomargarine? 

Professor Babcock. I^o ; it is a harmless color. I wish the national 
legislature would pass a law to jirevent the coloring of either. It is 
just as much a fraud in butter as in anything else. 

Senator Blair. If the coloring matter is used at all, should it not be 
ditferent, so as to distinguish thti articles? 

Professor Babcock. It does not do any harm, but it is like a man 
painting up his frost-bitten oranges so as to sell them. They should be 
sold for just what they are. If the cows do not give milk in winter 
which will make a good colored butter, they should not be allowed to 
color it and sell it as June butter, by adding a little color to it. 

Senator Blair. It all seems to be wrong, but if the coloring matter 
does not do any harm, why not have a different coloring substance used 
in these two articles, so that you can tell them apart? 

Professor Babcock. For this reason: Any color different from that 
which the public have been in the habit of seeing in butter would create 
a prejudice. People have been accustomed to strawberry-colored ice 



94 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

cream, and if a person should ask a confectioner for strawberry cream 
and he should produce a white cream ir would not satisfy him, because 
.he wants a strawberry-colored cream. 

Senator Blair. You say that oleomargarine is a healthful food, and 
usually sells upon its merits? 

Professor Baecock. Yes. 

Senator Blair. And you also say that it can be furnished at oue- 
lialf or onequartei' the ])rice of excellent butter? 

Professor Babcock. Yes. 

Senator Blair. Then just as soon as the public mind grasps that idea 
its sale will correspond 1 

Professor Babcock. Certaiidy. 

Senator Blair. We eat things that formerly were disgusting to us. 
The Frenchman eats frogs, and we wouUl soon become accustomed to 
them. I^ow, let tlie ])eopIe know the truth about this, and attack this 
popular fallacy that oleomargarine is hurtful, and very soon oleomar- 
garine will take the held against butter? 

Professor Babcock. 1 think it would. 

Senator Blair. On tliat theory oleomargarine is much better than 
butter ? 

Professor Babcock. For certain purposes, all things considered in 
reference to tlie })ri(*e. 

Senatoi- Blatr. As good, absolutely, ami not costing more than half 
as much 1 

Professor Babcock. Yes. 

Senator Blair. Then, why not ])ut oleomargarine upon its merits? 
Since butter has been allowed to be yellow from time immemorial, give 
oleomargarine a color we can tell it by, so that the consumer who buys 
it knows what he is getting. Give him a color to go by. What is the 
objection to that '? 

Professor Babcock. I will tell you why I think that would be unfair. 
There is no article of food which people use to day on their tables, that 
1 know of, that is })artly colored except butter. The use of any article 
to color oleonuirgarine pink or blue or black would excite a prejudice 
against it in the minds of everybody. 

Senator Blair. But not long. 

Professor Babcock. It would excite a prejudice long enough to have 
everybody who ever bought it ask the question, " What is this color that 
you use? How do j'ou make it?" 

Senator Blair. We all understand there is color put into butter. 

Professor Babcock. Scmietimes there is and sometimes there is not. 

Senator Blair. The butter that sells the best is understood to be arti- 
ficially colored, and yet we eat it without hesitation. 

Professor Babcock. The use of a color which, in its nature, as applied 
to any kind of food, is repulsive, is unfair. Olive oil, which a great 
many people eat, is yellow, aiul cottonseed oil, which peoi)le in the 
South eat, is yellow; fat also is yellow. 

Senator Blair. Those are natural colors, not artificial. 

Professor Babcock. Yes, they are natural colors, and when you nuike 
an article to take the ])lace of or be used as a substitute for a natural 
product, it is certainly but fair to allow the party to color it with a harm- 
less color which makes it resemble the article which it is intended to 
substitute. That is perfec;ly fair, I think. 

Senator Blair. Undoubtedly it is true that for a little while there 
would be a prejudice created against oleomargarine, but it is based on 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 95 

a false ground, on false data, and in a little while the public would 
learn to know the truth. 

Professor BAEt'OCK. I firmly believe that oleomargarine colored any 
color which was not in itself repulsive would be sought after if its 
merits were understood, but I do nor think you could ever make it 
salable if 3'ou colored it black, for instance — 

Senator Blair. I introduced in the Senate yesterday, to be sent to 
committee, an amendment to the bill providing that there should be no 
foreign siil)stances injected in the i)rocess of manufacture, or in any 
process of the prei>aiatiou of oleomargarine for food to be sold to the 
consumer, of a yellow tint or hue. You may take all the other colors 
of the rainbow, but let butter have its pre emi)ted color. What harm 
is there in that, so that the man who eats it can understand what he is 
eating. 

Professor Baucock. It is simply unftiir. If you can aiake it one 
color you can make it another. 

Senator Blair. Select your color. 

Professor Babcock. I think that some who might favor such a plan 
as that would be in reality aiming a blow at the article itself, rather 
than guarding the people. As I say, if you can color it one color you 
can another. 

Senator Blair. Set aside the question of motive. Here is a collisiou 
of motives between these two great interests. Each wants to get the 
better of the other, of course, naturally. It is a mercantile comj>eti- 
tion. But set that all one side. Is not the man who consumes the but- 
ter, or who consumes oleomargarine, entitled to know what he is eating" 
and what he is i)aying for? 

Professor Babcock. Yes; certainly. 

Senator Blair. And is he to be left to the mercy of the hotel keeper 
and the boarding house keeper and compelled to pay 50 cents a pound 
for this article by reason of this false color by which it is imposed upon 
him as butter, when it is really worth and costs, and ought to be sold 
for less than, 20 cents a pound ? 

Professor Babcock. There is no reason why he should not know what 
he is eating-. 

Senator Blair. These colors exist in nature; they are in flowers, aud 
in the laudscai>e in every form. The fat has a color when you extract 
the tallow. ISTow, why should not the oleomargarine i)eople choose some 
color, a white or a chocolate color, or a reddish hue, whatever they see 
tit to select, and then, as the article is very much cheaper, as it is as 
wholesome or more wholesome, as you claim, than butter, will not the 
people very soon under your instruction, become consumers of oleo- 
margarine rather than of butter! 

Professor Babcock. In time, undoubtedly. 

Senator Blair. Aud in a short time. 

Professor Babcock. No, not in a short time. 

Senator Blair. You eat it now as readily as you do butter? 

Professor Babcock. I suppose a chemist will do very many things 
that the general public will not do. The public are always very slow 
in such matters, and it will take a good many years for people to over- 
come the prejudices in regard to oleomargarine. I say, in short, that I 
think the coloring of oleomargarine by a distinctive color would be 
unfair. 

Senator Blair. Well, I have drawn out your opinion, and I will not 
consume more time. 

Senator Jones. I think you said, some time ago, that you had exam- 



9G IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

ined this substance to determine its quality as an article of food, whether 
it was healthful or not. 

Professor Babcock, Yes. . 

Senator Jones. And you believe it to be entirely healthful ? 

Professor Babcock. Yes. 

Senator Jones. There is a statement made on high authority in a 
pa]ier that I have marked in pencil, and I would like to have you look 
at it and tell me whether, from your examination as a chemist, you be- 
lieve that tliose substances enter into oleomaigarine and butter to anj- 
large extent, and if so, to what extent [handing a paper to the pro- 
fessor] ! 

Professor Babcock. I should be pleased to go over this list in detail 
if you desire it, and state in regard to every s|)ecific article what it is. 

Senator Jones. I would be glad to have you do so. 

Professor Babcock. In the first idace, I see on this list nitric acid. I 
do not believe that that has been or is used in the nmnufacture of oleo- 
margarine. It doubtless occurs as an ingredient in the sjiecitication of 
some person who has taken out a ])atent for doing something or other, 
such as the refining of some sort of fat. 

Senator Jones. It could be detected if i)resent in this substance? 

Professor Babcock. Yes. 

Senator Jones. Have yon ever detected it ? 

Professor Babcock. ISJo, sir. The next article here is sugar of lead. 
That is poisonous. 

Senator Jones. Would that diminish the cost of the manufacture of 
oleomargarine? 

Professor Babcock. ]Vo, sir. 

Senator Jones. Is there anv reason why it should be used if it could 
be! 

Professor Babcock. I do not know of any reason why it should be 
used. Sugar of lead is a poisonous substance, and I never heard of its 
being used in any food product whatever. Sometimes salts of lead have 
been detected in wine and vinegar, but what possible use it would be, 
or how the manufacturer could make use of sugar of lead in the making 
of oleomargarine, I do not know. The next article is sulphate of lime. 
That is what a man drinks a great deal of when he drinks any water 
found west of the Alleghany Mountains, especially in the far west. I 
do not know that it has ever been used in the manufacture of oleomar- 
garine. I cannot conceive of any purj)Ose for which it should be used 
in such manufacture. 

Senator Gibson. Is it not used some in the manufacture of sugar? 

Professor Babcock. Sulphuric acid is used to manufacture starch 
into glucose, and then lime is added for the purpose of neutralizing the 
acid in that manufacture, and that leaves a little suli)hate of lime in 
glucose. 

Senator Gibson. It is not deleterious to health ? 

Professor Babcock. No, sir; not at all. Butyric acid is named here. 
Well, that is a normal constituent of butter; that is legitimete. Gly- 
cerine is a normal constituent of butter, not as such, but glycerine in a 
modified form exists in butter. That is, glycerine exists in a modified form 
in all fats. " Cai)sic acid" is a mistake. It means capric acid, which is 
another of the acids natural and peculiar to butter. Commercial sul- 
phuric acid. I do not know of that having been used in any way in the 
manufacture of these goods. Tallow. That is confessedly an ingredi- 
ent. Butyric ether. That is a natural product which is developed from 
butter when it becomes rancid. The butvrine forms what is called an 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 97 

ether. Castor oil. I do not know why a man should use that. Cer- 
tainly an oleomargarine manufacturer making a product that he sells 
at 9 cents a pound would not make use of an article that sells for a dol- 
lar or two a gallon ; I do not know what the exact price is. Castor oil is 
a high priced article. You go to the druggist and buy a little bottle of 
it for the baby, and you pay him a quarter for it. No manufacturer would 
use that in making an article to sell for 9 or 10 cents a pound. Caul. 
Well, that of course is one of the articles used, the caul fat of the animal. 
Gastric juice. 

lu some of the earlier patents for making oleomargarine — I think in 
the origiualMege process, the French process — that a preparation made 
from gastric juice— what is called pepsin — was an ingredient. That we 
all to-day regard as a valuable remedy. It will cure dyspepsia quicker 
than almost anything else. It is the digestive principle of the animal, 
and is made from the hog's stomach. It is perfectly good and pure, and 
recognized as a valuable remedy by physicians. This paper refers to 
gastric juice. It is a reference, I suppose, to some preparation derived 
from the hog for digesting and dissolving the animal tissues which are 
found in fat. Curcumine. That is the active property of curcumsa root, 
or turmeric, which we are glad to have in our curry-powder. Curry- 
powder is colored with curcumine. If it is good there, it may be in 
butter. Chlorate of potash. I never heard of that being used for this 
purpose. If used, however, it is perfectly harmless. Peroxide of mag- 
nesia means black oxide of manganese. I do not know how it could be 
used iu the manufacture of oleomargarine. Nitrate of soda is harmless, 
but I never heard of its being used in that way. It may have been used 
in some process of salting. 

Some of the pork that comes flom Southern countries, and indeed 
some of our pork that is salted here, is salted with nitrate of soda. It 
is another form of saltpeter. Dry blood alburnum. That is perfectly 
legitimate. Not only dry blood album um, but fresh blood is used by 
all the sugar-houses in the country, and if a man should want to create 
a newspaper prejudice against pure white sugar some day, he could 
write up an article on dry blood, bone-black, burnt bones, and all those 
things used in refining sugar — facts that would discount the articles on 
oleomargarine 100 per cent. I should have no trouble in disgusting the 
people by an enumeration of the processes used in the manufacture of 
sugar. Saltpeter. That is harmless. Borax. That also is harmless, 
and so is orris root. Bicarbonate of soda is used in bread. Cajync 
acid, sulphite of soda, pepsin, lard, caustic potash — I never heard of 
that being used, and so on. I will not take up the time of the commit- 
tee in going over the rest of them, but if there is anything else you de- 
sire exijlained, I will do so with pleasure. I characterize that statement 
as an ignorant and prejudiced statement which no person would intelli- 
gently make. Undoubtedly those articles have been found in specifi- 
cations of patents relating to the manufacture of oleomargarine, but I 
do not believe that any manufacturer today uses any of those things. 

Senator Gibson. Could he use them ? 

Professor Babcock. I do not know for what purpose. 

Senator Jones. If they were used, as I understand you, they would 
be used not as a constituent part of the product, but might be used in 
processes adopted for the purpose of purification ? 

Professor Babcock. If used at all, they would be used, most of them, 
iu the process, and not as constituent products. But with very few ex- 
ceptions, I cannot conceive that they would be used at all. 

The Chairman. Could these various acids be used without there 
being danger of some portion remaining in the product? 
17007 OL 7 



98 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Professor Babcock. Yes ; they might. 

The Chairman. There is no danger of their remaining in the product 
at all ? 

Professor Babcock. If used, there would be a certain danger of their 
remaining in the product — I misunderstood your question. If they 
were used, traces of them might remain in the product or might not. 
If they did so remain, we should find them. 

The Chairman. Your statement was that you had no knowledge of 
any of these articles being used. How many oleomargarine factories 
have you investigated, so as to be familiar with their processes ? 

Professor Babcock. Cnly two; we have only two in our vicinitj'. 
My personal knowledge of the actual practical manufacture of oleomar- 
garine is much less than that of many other gentlemen present. . 

The Chairman. You do not believe that nitric acid or any of those 
other deleterious substances are used at all by any manufacturers, I 
understood you to say? 

Professor Babcock. I do not believe they are. 

The Chairman. Do you know anything about the factory of I:^. I. 
Nathan & Co., in New York, and of the process used by them ? 

Professor Babcock. No, sir ; I do not. 

The Chairman. 1 hold in my hand here a letter headed " N. I. Na- 
than & Co., manufacturers of butteriue, under patent granted to N. I. 
Nathan," which reads as follows: 

New York, March 30, 1886. 

Sirs : We have taken the liberty of forwarding to you per P. R. R. one 10-pouud 
tub of our creamery brand of butterine, which we claim is the finest in the market, 
for which we do not charge you anything. We guarantee uniformity in quality at 
all times, and our present price for the same is 10 cents per x>ound net, F. 0. 13., New 
York, in the following packages, viz : Half firkins, 10, 20, 30, 40, and ^6 pounds Welsh 
tubs ; 1 pound rolls, 30, 40, or 50 in a tub ; 60-pound tubs, catch- weight rolls; 1 pound 
round prints, 40 in a case ; 1 pound square prints, 52 pounds in a case. 

If the quality and price are satisfactory, we would be pleased to receive your valu- 
able orders. 

Very respectfully yours, 

N. I. NATHAN & CO. 

The Chairman. I also hold in my hand a business card which reads 
as follows : "N. I. Nathan & Co., manufacturers of butterine, under pat- 
ent granted to N. I. Nathan." 

I have also here a copy of a patent granted by the United States to 
N. I. Nathan, of New York, for a process of making artificial butter. 
After going on about preliminary matters, it says : 

The lard which has passed through the sieve is then subjected to the action of cold 
water, to which has been previously added and thoroughly stirred a quantity of bo- 
rax and nitric acid, about in the proportions hereinafter specified. By treating the 
lard in this solution, composed of water, borax, and nitric acid, the effect is to fur- 
ther cleanse the lard and make it partake of or assume a clear white color, free of all 
odor, and almost perfectly tasteless. After being subjected to this treatment, the 
mass is removed and thoroughly rewashed in cold water, preferably in a separate 
and distinct vessel from that pi'eviously employed, whereby the product become.s a 
purified or deodorized leaf lard, its characteristic being that it is of a beautiful color, 
a clear white, perfectly odorless, remarkably solid and free from the disagreeabl'e 
taste usually present with lard. Arriving at this stage of the process, a certain 
minute quantity of nitric acid is added to the water, and incorporated with a cer- 
tain quantity of the purified or deodorized lard to further strengthen the solution, 
and this mode of treatment and addition of nitric acid are continued as mass afier 
mass of the purified or deodorized lard is prepared, the ojieration being continued 
until the product assumes a clear white color, void of odor and taste. The product 
thus obtained is mixed with oleomargarine, which is then a commercial article and 
readily obtained in the market, and when all is thoroughly mixed, the mass is sub- 
jected to heat, &c. 

And he goes on and describes the amount of nitric acid used. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 99 

Professor Babcock. What was your question, sir? 

The Chairman. You stated that you had no knowledge of anything 
of this liiud being used, and did not believe it was used. Now, I ask 
you what you have to say in regard to that process ? 

Professor Babcock. 1 should like to see the whole of that patent first. 
I do not think because a man has a patent, and because his letterhead 
says that he works under a certain patent, that it by any means follows 
that his goods are so made. 

The Chairman. What do you mean by that? 

Professor Babcock. I mean to say that a man to day may make a 
certain kind of goods, and may say that he has taken out a patent for 
that purpose, and that his goods are made under that patent. But it does 
not follow that he does so. There are numerous patents taken out not 
worth a cent, and it is done merely to give a mau the right to put that 
on there, and he does put it on. 

The Chairman. Mr. Nathan says, under his letter-head of March 30, 
that these goods are manufactured under a patent of the United States, 
and I have here a copy of tlie patent. 

Professor Babcock. I understand that he says so. But I say in the 
first phice, it does not follow that because he has a patent, or because 
he refers to it in his letter-head, that he makes use of it. 

The Chairman. It follows, then, that he misrepresents the facts as 
to the making of itf 

Professor Babcock. I should say that in that case it might be so. 

The Chairman. Then you do not believe Mr. Nathan's siatement, 
that that is made under his patent? 

Professor Babcock. I did not say that; I did not say what I did not 
believe. I said this: That in the first place I was not aware of any 
manufacturer using nitric acid. It appears- that Mr. Nathan has a 
patent, and he says that he uses it. I admit tliat that may be true. 
But I say it does not follow that it is true because he has a ])atent and 
refers to it in his letter heads. But if he does use it — which 1 do not 
know, and which I am thankful to have received information concern- 
ing — what of it '? It is not a poison in the manner in which it is used, 
in any way, shape, or form. 

The Chairman. In answer to another question I understood you to 
say that it was a poison, and that if it was used a portion might re- 
main in the resulting product, and therefore it might be injurious. 

Professor Babcock. Let me explain that. If you take nitric acid in 
the strong form in which you buy it in a drug store it is a caustic. It 
is not a poison per se, but a poison because corrosive. But in a diluted 
form it is not a poison unless taken in large quantities. In the same 
manner salt is a poison. If used at all it is used in that patent for the 
purpose of oxydizing certain materials, so as to remove color, probably. 
As a chemist, I doubt very much whether Mr. Nathan uses any such 
thing. I do not believe he can use it. I do not understand how a man 
is going to work nitric acid in that process. 

Senator Jones. He says in his patent that he uses it in extremely 
small quantities, or words to that effect. 

The Chairman. The patent goes on and gives the proportions to be 
used for a gallon of water, and so forth. 

Senator Blair. What are they? 

The Chairman. Three ounces to a certain mixture here. 

Professor Babcock. I wish you would let me see that patent. 

The Chairman. I understood you to say some time ago that the bad 
odor which comes to the tallow or fat of any kind after it has been lying 



100 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

exposed to tbe atuiosplicrc for a short time can iti uo way be removed. 
Do you ijieaii to be uuderstood as broadly as that"? 

Professor Babcock. Of course it is a question of degree. In making 
oleomargarine you need perfectly fresb fat. 

Tbe Chairman. That is to say it makes tbe product better. 

Professor Babcock. I do not think you can take any fat material 
which is tuinted and use it successfully. 

Tbe Chairman. I judge from the nature of that i)atent that nitric 
acid and other chemicals that were used there were for the purpose of 
deodorizing the fat. He speaks of deodorizing the mass by tbe use of 
nitric acid, borax, and \\ater. 

Professor Babcock. He says, also: "In practicing my invention I 
purchase in open market fresh leaf lard." He does not take refuse ma- 
terials and work them up, but he starts with fresh leaf lard. 

Tbe Chairman. If he starts with fresh leaf laid what is tbe object 
of deodorizing it"? 

Professor Babcock. To make it still better and to remove the last 
traces of tbe animal. It is to carry it another step. This nitric acid, 
if used according to this patent, is intended for removing tbe last traces 
from tbe fresh leaf lard, which be admits he uses. He does not use re- 
fuse fat any way. 

Tbe Chairman. But might he not use refuse fat and still state on 
bis letter beads that be works under tbe patent, and that use of nitric 
acid, would that not apply to lard as well as the other thiugs ? 

Professor Babcock. I do not believe that he can use refuse fat. 

Tbe Chairman. What knowledge have you on that subject? 

Professor Babcock. I know something of tbe difficulty of refining 
fats. I have made that a special study — the matter of oils and fats — 
and I know that if you have a iat that is tainted, and you want to refine 
it to a degree so that you can make oleomargarine of it, you have got 
something which chemists have not yet been able to accomplish, in my 
judgment. You have got to start with the best fat you can procure 
and then you have to carry that on by carefully treating it all the way 
through, and tbe object of the various patents which have been gotten 
out has been to accomplish that in some other way than by tbe original 
method which was covered in the Mege patent. 

The Chairman. There is uo use of nitric acid, or any suggestion of 
the necessity of it, in the original process of Mege. 

Professor Babcock. I think not. 

The Chairman. The fact of finding it in the patent would suggest, 
would it not, to every one, that the object of using it was to deodorize 
fats which bad contracted an odor so that they could not be used with- 
out it. 

Professor Babcock. I think not to any intelligent person who would 
read that whole specification. When a man says, "In practicing my 
invention I purchase in open market fresh leaf lard, and after having 
thoroughly washed it, cause it to be cut up and minced in a suitable 
machine," it indicates that be buys fresh material and tbe best he can 
get. 

Tbe Chairman. Further down it says he uses nitric acid and borax. 
Is that not a process of deodorizing? 

Professor Babcock. Certainly it is. 

The Chairman. Why should be deodorize it if it is in tbe condition 
in which Mege intended it should be — fresh and without odor? 

Professor Babcock. He wants to get tbe odor perfectly out of it 
and to make an absolutely neutral fat. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 101 

The Chairman. Yon thiuk that can be done only in fresh fat, and 
that fat not absolutely fresh cannot be deodorized at all"? 

Professor Babcock. It cannot be practically deodorized. In a 
chemical laboratory I will not say that it could not be done by the use 
of chemicals so that a man could get a patent and sell out to some com- 
pany if he wanted to. But it is not practical, because it would cost 30, 
40, or 50 cents a pound. 

The Chairman. I will ask you one other question right on that point, 
as you have given your opinion very positively. We will suppose that 
a fat is not perfectly fresh; that it has been removed a short time from 
the animal and has become slightly tainted by being exposed to the av 
mosphere. Do you not believe it possible under that patent, or some 
other patent, by the use of chemicals, to so far deodorize it that it could 
be used for making an article of oleomargarine, and that whatever odor 
was Ipft could be concealed by the use of flavoring materials like bu- 
tyric acid or other matters. 

Professor Babcock. I do not think that any fat which had become 
in any sense offensive or unpalatable could be so treated. 

The Chairman. You mean after it has become putrid or partially 
decayed ? 

Professor Babcock. No, sir; not so far as that. I mean fat not per- 
fectly fresh — fat which is not more than 24 or 36 hours old. You cannot 
take old fat and work it. 

The Chairman. For how long a period after fat is taken from an 
animal can it be used ? 

Professor Babcock. I would not undertake to express an opinion in 
regard to that. I frankly say I do not know. But I say the fat must 
be relatively fiesh. Now a single word on a matter which 1 think is 
quite clear, about this purification of the pure leaf lard. If you take 
water from a well or pond, you saj^ it is pure, nice water, that it has 
only five or ten grains of solids to the gallon, and you use it for drink- 
ing purposes. But for certain manufacturing purposes it is necessary 
to get absolutely pure water, and so, at a great deal of trouble and ex- 
pense, so that it costs you 12 to 15 cents a gallon, you take that water 
and distill it, and it is absolutely pure. That is what this is. It is pure- 
leaf lard that he starts with. 

The Chairman. One other question about the color. Mr. Nathan 
produces as a result a color which is a pure dead white. That is of 
course the natural color of butterine or oleomargarine uncolored. Why 
not leave it right there? Why not provide that no coloring matter 
shall be added to it, but that it shall be left in its natural form — not 
compel it to be colored pink or any other color, but leave it in its natu- 
ral color? 

Professor Babcock. For this reason : In that way oleomargarine 
could not be distinguished from lard or tallow, and if the goods were 
uncolored in that way, in three or four years some people might come 
before a legislative committee and say, "Here are people who are sell- 
ing tallow and lard for oleo — lard unpurified instead of oleo." How are 
you going to provide for that "? 

The Chairman. They could be distinguished by the taste and flavor. 

Professor Babcock. No, the lard might still be purified so as to be a 
lard without flavor. 

Senator Blair. Why do they not sell lard for butter now, on that 
theory 1 

Professor Babcock. For the reason that it is not adapted to the 
Xmrposes of butter; it is too thin, too fluid. 



102 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Senator Blair. Would it uot be just as useless for butter then as 
now ; it would be lard still. 

Professor Babcock. It would be lard, but it would be purified. I 
will say in regard to this matter of color that it is done to please the 
eye and to make it resemble an article which it is confessedly made for 
the purpose of resembling as a substitute for it. If a man was going 
to make a substitute for butter he would not want it black or pink or 
•duy other color, any more than he would want to make a substitute for 
ebony any other color than black. 

The Chairman. You do not think it would injure its commercial 
value to color it ? 

Professor Babcock. I think that for a number of years any other 
color than that people are accustomed to see in the goods used for the 
purpose of butter would create a prejudice which it would require a 
number of years to overcome. That would be the effect. 

Senator Jones. Do you think there is any difficulty practically in 
enforcing a properly-guarded State law to insure the public against the 
l)urchase of oleomargarine except where they choose to buy it? 

Professor Babcock. I think there is no difficulty in enforcing a 
properly guarded State law, a local law. If you have a law i)roviding 
that such and such things shall or shall uot be done, and you have no- 
body to look after it, it is not going to be enforced of course. You 
must have officers to execute it. 

Senator Jones. You think there would be no difficulty in executing 
a law with proper machinery and a properly framed law"? 

Professor Babcock. I think there would be no practical difficulty in 
executing it. 

The Chairman. How would you reach every little town and village 
in Massachusetts and every wayside grocer — by an inspector? 

Professor Babcock. I should make the attempt in the same way 
that I should try to enforce the law against rum or anything else of 
that nature. You have a law about this, that, or the other thing, but 
it is not enforced in every little town. 



STATEMENT OF GEORGE H. WEBSTER. 

Mr. George H. Webster, of Chicago, then came before the com- 
mittee. 

The Chairman. Please state in what behalf you appear ? 

Mr. Webster. I am a member of the firm of Armour & Co., of 
Chicago. 

Senator Jones. In what business are you engaged I 

Mr. Webster. We are slaughterers of cattle and hogs, and pack and 
ship the product. 

As a preface, I wish to say that it is my desire and intention to cover 
the ground fully, in order that this investigation may be as exhaustive 
and comprehensive as possible under the circumstances. If, therefore, 
any points should be omitted about which you desire to be informed, it 
will give me pleasure to be interrogated, and, if unable to furnish im- 
mediately the information desired, I promise to obtain it. We have 
nothing to conceal that will tend to enlighten you on this important 
matter. 

As I have stated, 1 am a member of the firm of Armour & Co., of 
Chicago. We are slaughterers of cattle and hogs in Chicago to quite a 
formidable extent, having killed last year 330,000 cattle and 1,200 000 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 103 

Logs on our own premises. We send the products to all parts of the 
world, and as an element of this business we are jjroducers of oleo oil 
and neutral, as well as the much abused products known as oleomar- 
garine and butterine. The testimony to which you listened yesterday 
and this morning from Professors Morton and Babcock and Chandler 
was altogether scientific. It is my privilege this morning, as a mer- 
chant and manufacturer, to present the matter to you from a commercial 
standpoint, having noticed yesterday that several questions propounded 
to those gentlemen regarding the cost and selling value of the articles 
were not satisfactorily answered. 

The methods for j (reducing the several products were so minutely 
described to you by Professor JMorton, that I promise to be very brief 
in alluding to them again. The product which is most afiected by this 
bill, and which is the more far-reaching in its extent, is that which is 
commercially known as "oleo oil," the manufacture of which enhanced 
the value of the cattle slaughtered iu Chicago alone, during the past 
year, to the sum of fully $4,000,000. This I mention as appertaining 
to Chicago only ; my iriends who are present from the cattle districts 
of the West will have something to say concerning this product and 
the interest they have in it. 

The method of producing oleo oil is as follows: The selected fat is taken 
from the cattle in the process of slaughtering, and after thorough wash- 
ing is placed in a bath of clean cold water and surrounded with ice, 
where it is allowed to remain until all animal heat has been removed. 
It is then cut into sniall pieces by machinery, and melted at an average 
temperature of 150 degrees until the fat in liquid form has separated 
from the fibriue or tissue, and then settled until it is perfectly clear. 
Then it is drawn into graining vats and allowed to stand a day, when 
it is ready for the process. The pressing extracts the stearine, leav- 
ing the remaining jiroduct, known as oleo oil. It is this article which, 
wheu churned with cream or milk or both, and with sometimes a small 
proportion of creamery butter, the whole being properly salted, gives the 
new food product oleomargarine. Each animal yields an average of about 
40 pounds of oleo oil, and the quantity produced iu the United States 
during 1885 was about U00,000 tierces, equal to 75 millions of pounds ; 
of this about one third is used in this country, the remainder going to 
various i)arts of Europe, but mainly to Ilolland, where the manufacture 
of oleomargarine for shipment to England is one of the i)rincii)al indus- 
tries of the Kingdom. The average market value of oleo oil, over that 
of common tallow, for the past three years has ranged from 5 to 8 cents 
per pound, and figuring it at 7 cents per pound, gives approximately $3 
per head which beef cattle are benefited by its manufacture. Of the 
total quantity mentioned, Chicago and vicinity produce about one-half. 

This oleo oil is manufactured to a large extent in Austria, France, 
and Germany, over 40,000 tierces, equal to 15,000,000 of pounds, finding 
its way into Holland alone during the year 1885. With this large pro- 
duction abroad the United States has to compete, and if oleo oil used 
in this country is taxed, which is one of the propositions of the bill, it 
will throw just that additional quantity on the foreign market and lower 
the price correspondingly, which, at a low estimate of two cents i)er 
pound, would amount to $1,500,000. Does it seem right or just, from 
any standpoint, that any portion of your fellow-citizens should be de- 
prived of their own home market for so valuable a product, and forced 
into an unprofitable export outlet as being the only one open to them, 
and simply because it is the principal component part of a clean and 
wholesome food i)roduct whose only sin is that it is competitive with 



104 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

another? Has not an American citizen as mucji right to make butter 
from oleo oil as another American citizen has to make it from cream 
and milk, and has not the consumer as much right to buy and eat it if 
he so desires? There is no doubt, however, that the consumer should 
be made aware of what he is buying, and this can be easily accomplished 
and regulated by proper State police surv-eillance, but onerous prohib- 
itory taxation is unnecessary and opens the doors for endless troubles 
in the future. 

I have now described oleo oil and oleomargarine and their relations 
to each other, but there is another product, called butteriue, to which 
allusion was made yesterday, but no satisfactory description of it was 
given, for the reason that very little of it comparatively speaking is 
made in the East or in New York, from which city the two gentlemen 
came. 

The difference between oleomargarine and butterine is this: In 
making butterine we use neutral lard, which is made from selected leaf 
lard prepared and rendered in a very similar manner to oleo oil, except- 
ing that no steriue is extracted. This neutral laid, which is a beauti- 
fully white and odorless product, is cured in salt brine for 48 to 70 hours 
at an ice-water temperature. It is then taken and with the desired pro- 
portions of oleo oil and the finest creamery butter is churned with cream 
and milk, producing an article which, when properly salted and packed, 
is ready for market. We use the same coloring that is used by all 
butter-makers, and which has already been fully described. The but- 
terine is generally made of two qualities, differing only in the propor- 
tions of the ingredients used. In cold weather a little salad oil, made 
from selected cottonseed, is used in both products for the improvement 
of their texture. We get an average of about eight pounds of raw leaf 
lard per hog, which render net about five to six pounds of neutral. 
This neutral is worth from two to three cents per pound over ordinary 
steam-rendered lard. Therefore figuring five pounds per hog as a min- 
imum, at two and a half cents per pound, adds twelve and one half cents 
per head to the value of every hog slaughtered in the large cities. 

There were slaughtered in Chicago during the past year 5,000,000 of 
hogs, which at 12J cents ])er head makes an enhanced value from neu- 
tral alone of over $500,000. This article is seldom exported, and there- 
fore if this bill should go into effect the industry of its manufacture 
would be entirely crushed and destroyed. The proportions of the com- 
ponent parts used in i)reparing these several articles of oleomargarine, 
creamery butterine, and dairy butterine are approximately as follows: 

Oleomargarine is mainly made of oleo oil exclusively, but sometimes 
5 per cent, of the finest butter is added, which is churned with the 
cream and milk to improve the flavor. 

Creamery butterine is usually composed of 25 per cent, creamery 
butter, 40 per cent, neutral, 20 per cent, oleo oil, and the balance milk, 
cream, and salt. 

Dairy butterine differs from creamery only in the ijroportions. It is 
a cheaper product, and its proportion of butter about 10 per cent., neu- 
tral 45 per cent., and oleo oil 25 jDer cent., the balance being made up 
of cream, milk, and salt. 

The average cost of these products respectively is about as follows : 
Oleomargarine, 8 cents per pound ; dairy butterine, 10^- cents per pound ; 
creamery butterine, 13 cents per pound; and the average selling prices, 
taking our own as an index, are: Oleomargarine, 9 to 9^ cents; dairy 
butterine, 11.J to 12 cents; creamery butterine, 14^ to 15 cents. 

Senator Jones. Do I understand you to mean by oleomargarine, as 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 105 

you use tbe term tbere, the oleo oil, or oleomargarine as prepared in 
imitation of butter ? 

Mr. Webster. What I have just stated about the cost and selling 
price related to oleomargarine — the prepared product. 

Senator Jones. Prepared as a substitute for butter 1 

Mr. Webster. Yes, sir ; it is made mainly from oleomargarine oil. 
On special occasions, and in order to meet competition, wehave sold the 
product at one fourth to one half cent per pound over actual cost, all 
showing that the business in itself is competitive, and done at best on 
very limited margins of profit. In Chicago there are thirteen manu- 
facturers in all, but the business is principally confined to about half 
that number. The manufacturers in the whole country, east and west, 
as far as I can ascertain, number about thirty. The manufacture of 
these products furnishes employment to probably two thousand men, 
while the production of oleo oil neutral furnishes employment directly 
and indirectly to at least three times as many more. At the last Ameri- 
can fat stock and dairy show held under the auspices of the Illinois 
State Board of Agriculture in Chicago, in November last, the butterine 
manufacturers were allowed, after much dissentiou, to make an exhibit 
of their products, and the effect was M^onderful in turning popular preju- 
dice into poi)ular favor. The butterine men, in order to show their 
sympathy and sincerity at that time, otfered two thousand dollars in 
premiums for the best display of fine creamery butter at the next ex- 
hibition, to take place November next. I hold a letter in my hand, re- 
ceived by my firm only a few days ago, which I will take occasion to 
read, if you desire, as it shows how the butterine-makers' premiums are 
appreciated by the Illinois State Board of Agriculture. 

We, as manufacturers of the component parts of oleomargarine and 
butterine as well as of the products themselves, respectfully urge that 
you recommend the appointment of a committee to visit the places of the 
principal manufacture of these articles, and to make a thorough investi- 
gation of all the methods an<l ingredients used. It will be our pleasure 
to extend every possible facility, that the whole facts may be obtained 
and every item uncovered that will lead to the whole truth and nothing 
but the truth concerning them. 

In regard to these products being similar to butter, so there are carpets 
and every other article made in almost exact imitation of those of a 
higher and more expensive grade, and such imitations are often sold for 
originals, yet the manufacturers have never had prohibitory taxation 
thrust upon them, and their offense, if such it is, is far greater than our 
own, for we sell our products on their merits alone. 

A sugar planter in Louisiana would surely consider it a hardship if 
he should be threatened with taxation because some remote retailer 
mixed his product with sand and glucose, and then took advantage of 
the consumer. Undoubtedly the proper way to stop such illegitimate 
transactions is through the State laws and strict police surveillance in 
their enforcement. Nothing, I assure you, would please the makers of 
oleomargarine and butterine more than just exactly such a regulation. 
Our products are daily increasing in popular favor, and solely upon 
their own merits; the i)eople generally prefer them and buy them, 
rather than the unpalatable and unwholesome grades of medium dairy 
butter. Such butter is fit only for grease, and these new food products 
are to be thanked for forcing it to find its own true and consistent level. 
The manufacture of these products does not affect the price of butter 
adversely, but quite the contrary is the fact. We expended during the 
past season $95,000 for creamery butter for use in our butterine and 



106 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

oleomargarine factory. This represented between 350,000 and 400,000 
pounds, at an average cost of 26J cents per pound, and we have sold 
our creamery butterine during the past two weeks at 15 cents per pound, 
when the price of butter in Elgin was exactly the same figure. This 
shows the hold these products are taking on popular taste and popular 
favor ; it shows, furthermore, that the average consumer is a philoso- 
pher, from the fact that he would rather "bear the ills he has than fly 
to others that he knows not of." 

The business of manufacturing these articles will not stand a tax of 
any kind. We are willing to pay a license if considered admissible and 
will brand the product ; more than this we think should not be de- 
manded. 

In regard to the wholesomeness of these products, I want to say a 
word or two. A short time ago, when Dr. Cyrus Edson, of the New 
York board of health, was in Chicago, we invited him, in company with 
Dr. De Wolf, who is health commissioner of New York City, and Dr. 
John H. Kauch, who is secretary of the Illinois State board of health, 
to visit our factory. They did so and voluntarily gave us these letters : 

Chicago, May 15, 1886. 
Messrs. Armour & Co., Chicago: 

Gentlemen: It gives us pleasure to say to you that we have recently visited your 
factory at the Uniou Stock Yards in this city, aud thoroughly examined the whole 
process of the manipulatiou and manufacture of butterine and oleomargarine. We 
cheerfully testify that we consider the products cleanly, palatable, and wholesome 
food products, containing nothing injurious or detrimental ro health, but, on the coq- 
trary, cheap and desirable substitutes for the medium grades of dairy butter. 
Yours, respectfully, 

CYRUS EDSON, M. D. 
OSCAR C. De WOLF, M. D. 

[Illinois State Board of Health, Office of the Secretary.] 

Springfield, III., ilaij 17, 1886. 
To Armour & Co. : 

Gentlemen: While engaged in an official investigation with regard to the slaugh- 
tering of beef at the Union Stock Yards, accompanied by Dr. Cyrus Edson, food 
Inspector of the New York board of health, aud Dr. O. C De Wolf, health commis- 
sioner of Chicago, recently, I witnessed your process for the manufacture of oleomar- 
garine aud butterine. By what I saw I am convinced that it is conducted with the 
most sciupulous cleanliness; that nothing in the manufacture, or the material used, 
is detrimental to health, and that the products are wholesome. 
Very respectfullv, 

JOHN H. RAUCH, M. D. 

I would be pleased to leave with the committee several of our circu- 
lars which we send out for our customers, showing how we place the 
article before the people from a manufacturer's standpoint. 

The Chairman. Have you any knowledge as to how other manu- 
facturers brand their goods and send them out, or only in regard to your 
own practice ? 

Mr. Webster. I know very little as to what others do, but I believe 
that all manufacturers send out their products as we do, and sell them 
as we do. 

The Chairman. You heard the statement made by Professor Bab- 
cock, who preceded you, in regard to goods coming to Boston from some 
places in the West, branded " Eureka Creamery," and so forth. Have 
you any knowledge on that subject at all ? 

Mr. Webster. I am not familiar with those brands. 

The Chairman. Then I will not ask you to say anything about that. 

Senator Sawyer. Do you use any patent right in any of your manu- 
factories ? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 107 

Mr. Webster. No, sir; we do not. A number of years ago, in con- 
nection with others, we had a patent issued to us simply as a matter of 
protection against the prosecution of the Commercial Manufacturing 
Company who held the M6ge patent in this country. We had that 
patent issued, but it was a mere pro-forma matter, and was never put 
into practical effect. It was done for a purpose, and that purpose was 
our jirotection from prosecution. 

The Chairman. Can you state about the proportion of butterine, as 
compared to oleomargarine, now made generally in the country"? 

Mr. Webster. 1 think the preponderance is largely in favor of 
oleomargarine. I have no definite figures of the total manufacture of 
these products separately. 

The Chairman. I understood you to state that there was more but- 
terine made, or the product containing lard, than there was oleomarga- 
rine. 

Mr. Webster. I said there was more bntterine made in the West 
than there was in the East. 

The Chairman. I understood you to say that about two-thirds of 
the latter, or oleomargarine oil, went abroad. 

Mr. Webster. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. About how much fat, on the average, comes from 
each animal slaughtered ? I mean fat that can be used in the oleomar- 
garine factories. About how many pounds of raw ftit is the average of 
each animal slaughtered? 

Mr. Webster. They figure about 5 per cent. It averages, I think, 
about 55 pounds, from which we get on the average, approximately, 35 
pounds of oleo oil and 22 or 23 pounds of stearine. 

The Chairman. That is 55 pounds on the average, from each animal 
slaughtered, of fat that is suitable for oleo? 

Mr. Webster. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. What is the raw fat worth in the market now ? 

Mr. Webster. I am unable to answer that question definitely, be- 
cause we never sell it ; we manufacture it into oleo oil. 

The Chairman. Has it not any market value in Chicago? 

Mr. Webster. Oh, ves, it has. 

The Chairman. Can you not state about what the raw fat is worth ? 

Mr. Webster. I should think it would be worth, approximately, in 
Chicago, six cents a pound, judging from the value of the other prod- 
ucts. 

The Chairman. What was that fat used for before the manufacture 
of oleo was discovered, chtetiy ? 

Mr. Webster. It was rendered into ordinary tallow. 

The Chairman. About what was the price of tallow in this country 
before this process began "? 

Mr. Webster. I can furnish you with those statistics. 

The Chairman. Can you furnish us with statistics as to the price of 
tallows and lards running back for a number of years; are there any 
such figures as those made by the Produce Exchange of Chicago, or other 
parties? 

Mr. Webster. Yes, I think so. 

Senator Blair. And can you give the present prices to show whether 
there has been any change in the prices of lard and tallow ? 

Mr. Webster. I have the prices of oleo oil and tallow for three years 
past, but I can very readily obtain them for twenty years if you desire 
them. It is merely a matter of statistical reference. I cannot do so 
to-day, but I will do so with pleasure hereafter. This oleo oil, if you 



108 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Will allow me to say it, is a verj^ sensitive article. A year ago it sold 
as high as 17 cents a pound, and it has sold since as low as 8 cents a 
pound, a fresh oleo oil suitable for this purpose. Tallow has sold as 
high as 8 cents a pound and as low as 3| cents a pound. It is worth in 
Chicago today 4 cents a pound, and fresh oleo oil 12i cents a pound. 

The Chairman. About how much tallow would be derived from the 
average cattle killed; taking the whole fat of the animal, how much 
tallow would be produced? 

Mr. Webster. Of the rendered tallow I think about 55 pounds. I 
think there is about 80 pounds, if I remember rightly, of rough fat, 
which makes, rendered, in the neighborhood of 55 or GO pounds of reg- 
ular tallow. That is the figure, when all the fat goes into the tallow, 
if I understood your question. 

The Chairman. Yes, it was if the whole of the fat was rendered into 
tallow how much would be produced from the animal? 

Mr. Webster. The average difference in the price, as I believe I 
mentioned, for a series of years, has been from 5 to 8 cents a pound. 1 
have known it to be 10 cents a pound, but I figure it in my estimate 
here at 7 cents. 

The Chairman. I wish you would furnish me, at your convenient 
leisure, the prices of tallow and lard running back for a number of 
years — the statistics. 

Mr. Webster. I will do so with pleasure. 

Senator Jones. I think those figures ought to go into and be made a 
part of his statement. 

The Chairman. They should, if they come in time. 

Senator Blair. Do you sell oil for consumption in this country or do 
you turn the whole of your product into oleomargarine and butterine 
yourselves '? 

Mr. Webster. We sell large quantities of it to other manufecturers. 

Senator Blair. To what points of the country do you send it, and 
give us some idea of the quantities. I do not expect much accuracy 
about it. Do you send it to the Pacific coast 1 

Mr. Webster. We make ourselves, at our packing-houses, about 
25,000 tierces of oleo oil per annum, and we shipped last year about 
12,000 tierces, about one-half. I jnesume out of the remainder we used 
two-thirds. My idea of the volume of business would lead me to suppose 
that we use approximately 7,000 or 8,000 tierces and sell the balance ; 
that is, in this country. 

Senator Blair. I understood you to say that vou shipped about 
12,000 tierces abroad ! 

Mr. Webster. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. And you consume in your own manufacture into 
oleomargarine and butterine how much? 

Mr. Webster. I think six or seven thousand tierces. 

Senator Blair. And the difference, some five or six thousand tierces, 
you sell to manufacturers in this country"? 

Mr. Webster. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. I would like to know something in regard to the 
parts of the country it is sent to. 

Mr. Webster. Certainly. We send it to New l^ork quite largely — 
that is, the oleo oil, and we sent it to Cleveland, Columbus, Pittsburgh, 
Pa., and to various points in the West. 

Senator Blair, Can you state where, substantially, all the oil used 
in oleomargarine and butterine is produced ? Is it ])i'etty much all 
produced in Chicago and New York — the oil itself I mean ? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 109 

Mr. Webster. The oleo oil ? 

Senator Blair. Yes. 

Mr. Webster. The bulk of it is produced in Cbicago and New York. 
Our Kansas City house is a large producer, but they do not kill as many 
cattle as we do, and use the greater portion themselves. They sliii) but 
very little. 

Senator Blair. I would like to know how extensive the business of 
the smallest establishment is. I want to know whether the manufacture 
of this oil into oleomargarine is becoming common in small places, among 
small i)roducers and dealers. 

Mr. Webster. In the city of Cleveland I thiidv there are three man- 
ufactories — three or four. In Columbus, Ohio, there are one or two. 
In Pittsburgh there are two, and I think three — two that I know of, and 
I do not recall any more. 

Senator Blair. Do you know whether, as a matter of fact, farmers 
and those who are managing what are called creameries are making use 
of the oil at all ? 

Mr. Webster. I do. 

Senator Blair. Will you give us such information as you have as to 
the extension of its use among those who call themselves butter mak- 
ers, principally farmers and others'? 

Mr. Webster. I cannot give you any definite figures in regard to 
that matter. 

Senator Blair, I do not expect it; I suppose it is a difficult thing to 
get figures about it. But I would like to know to what extent butter is 
being adulterated by the use of that oil. 

Mr. Webster. We have seut both oleo oil and neutral out into the 
farming districts, the dairy districts. 

Senator Blair. To what class of producers — dealers and farmers I 

Mr. Webster. No, sir ; I think they are mostly batter manufactur- 
ers and cheese manufacturers. 

Senator Blair. This enters into the manufacture of cheese somewhat, 
then "? 

Mr. Webster. Yes, I understand so. I know but little of that in- 
dustry ; simply from what I have heard and read in the i)apers. 

Senator Blair. It is added into the dairy butter and cheese of the 
country "? 

Mr. Webster. I do not know about the regular cheese. I know 
there is a cheap imitation of cheese that is made out in that district 
that this article goes into, or at least I have been told so ; I cannot 
speak from absolute knowledge, for I never saw either product of 
cheese manufactured. 

Senator Blair. But as a business man, you understand that jirocess 
is going on. Of course it is a healthy article ; at least it is, certainly, 
from your standpoint. Do you see any objection to its becoming grad- 
ually^ diffused through the entire manufacture of butter and cheese so 
far as it can be used and utilized ? 

Mr. Webster. So far as its wholesomeness is concerned I should 
think not, unless they use some other compound or product in connec- 
tion with it. 

Senator Blair. But if it be a cheaper product than ordinary butter, 
why is not the natural commercial tendency to its general ditfusion 
through the entire butter manufacture of the country ? People can 
make money that way. 

Mr. Webster. That is a matter of conjecture that I am unable to 
give you satisfaction about. 



110 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Senator Blair. But that is going on to some extent I understand. I 
have not heard much said about the extent to which the tallow of sheep 
was used. 

Mr. Webster. It is never used, that I know of, for this purpose. In 
the course of our business we kill from 50,000 to 60,000 s^eep per annum, 
and all the tallow from them we sell to soap makers. Kirk «& Company, 
of Chicago, are our principal buyers. 

Senator Blair. You do not understand that mutton tallow enters 
into the manufacture of oleomargarine? 

Mr. Webster. I never heard that it did. 

Senator Blair. No animal is killed simply for the purpose of increas- 
ing the manufacture of oleomargarine, I suppose ? 

Mr. Webster, i^ot solely for that purpose. 

Senator Blair. Then it is the animal which is killed for consumption 
as meat, as food, and which would be killed any way'? 

Mr. Webster. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. You utilize a portion of the dead product in the way 
which you speak of, so that the only limitation to manufacture is the 
demand of the animal as a food, as meat, is it not ? 

Mr. Webster. Yes, sir; as food — not altogether as fresh meat. 

Senator Blair. Not altogether ; the hides and tallow and all that. 
But I want to get at an idea of the extent to which this business can 
naturally be competitive with the ordinary dairy manufacture of the 
country. There must be some limitation, aud it is incident only to the 
general meat business, and incident to the general production of meat 
as food. 

Mr. Webster. Yes; that is so. 

Senator Blair. And as it is carried on all the animals killed in the 
country, substantially, are now utilized, are they not? 

Mr. Webster. No, sir. In small towns in New England, for instance, 
where a country butcher kills a few cattle from week to week, they do 
not pretend to make oleo oil; it cannot be done. It requires a process, 
machinery, and an expensive plant. 

Senator Blair. But in the great slaughtering business of the coun- 
try, on the extensive scale it is carried on in your business, the fat of 
the cattle and of the hogs are already utilized to the I'ullest extent to 
which they can be in the manufacture of oleomargarine and butterine; 
is not that so? 

Mr. Webster. The fat from the hog is a very small percentage. This 
leaf lard i* the choicest fat from the hog, and only weighs about eight 
pounds iu the rough. We get about five pounds of neutral from a hog, 
when we ordinarily get about forty pounds of lard. 

Senator Blair. To what greater extent could the fat of the hog be used 
or utilized for the manufacture of oleomargariue than now; how much 
more could it be used than it is now? Could you double the produc- 
tion ? 

Mr. Webster. I do not think so. 

Senator Blair. Could it be increased materially? 

Mr. Webster. 1 think not, except from the general growth of the 
country aud business. 

Senator Blair. As more animals were killed. But in all the hogs 
killed, substantially-, all that portion of the hog product which is tit to 
work into oleomargarine is already utilized iu that way, is it? / 

Mr. Webster. Yes; from the hogs killed in the larger cities. The 
small packing houses throughout the country do not make neutral at 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Ill 

all. It is only in cities like Chicago, though some is made in Boston, 
some in Kansas City, and I think some in Saint Louis. 

Senator Blair. What proportion of the animals killed in the coun- 
try are killed in these large centers, do you think? 

Mr. Webster. The greater portion by far. 

Senator Blair. Four-fifths? 

Mr. Webster. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. Of the animals killed in these great centers, then, 
just four-fifths of the whole, or more, of the hog ami the beef creat«re 
are utilized, as far as they can be profitably, already in the manufacture 
of oleomargarine and butterine. I understand that to be your state- 
.ment. Is that correct ? 

Mr. Webster. In the manufacture of oleo oil and neutral. A neu- 
tral or oleo oil is manufactured which does not go into the manufacture 
of oleomargarine in this country. 

Senator Blair. But it goes into the manufacture somewhere else. 

Mr. Webster. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. Does your house ship its products to this District; 
I mean oleomargarine or butterine? 

Mr. Webster. We do. 

The Chairman. How are the tubs that come here branded? 

Mr. Webster. I do not know, but I think they are branded as we 
usually brand them. Sometimes we put on merely a specific name, but 
our products usually are branded like that. [Exhibiting a printed 
paper to the committee.] 

The Chairman (readiaig the imper). "Armour «& Co. ; pure dairy but- 
terine." "A.rmour & Co.; finest creamery butterine." 

Senator Van Wyck. Why are the words "dairy" and "creamery" 
put on that bill? 

Mr. Webster. Merely to distinguish the grades. Creamery butter- 
ine is the highest grade. 

Senator Van Wyck. Why do you not say "first quality" or "second 
quality"? 

Senator Sawyer. Mr. Webster stated, before you came in, that they 
used 25 per cent, of butter besides the milk, which ran it up to 35 per 
cent., and in some other grades less. 

The Chairman. Do not all the manufacturers in branding it leave 
out the words "oleomargarine" and "butterine," and simj)ly brand it 
"dairy" or "creamery"? 

Mr. Webster. Possibly so. Sometimes they put on a single name 
without specifying whether it is dairy or creamery. 

The Chairman. What do you mean by that? 

Mr. Webster. Sometimes they wdl put on the name with the word 
"oleomargarine" under it. 

The Chairman. Does your house ever brand it without using the 
words "butterine" or "oleomargarine"? 

Mr. Webster. Yes; but not to any great extent. We do that on an 
order, because customers ask it. 

The Chairman. You brand it just as your customers ask to have it 
branded, if they have any desire about it? 

Mr. Webster. Well, we use a consistent judgment about that. If 
our customers should ask us to brand it "creamery butter," we should 
decline to do it. 

The Chairman. But if they ask you to put anj-^ special brand or 
name u]X)n it, you do that ? 

Mr. Webster. Yes, sir. 



112 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Senator Blair. Wliat are some of those names which occur to you 
which you put on at the request of customers — those brands? 

Mr. Webster. I am not very familiar with that. My business is at 
the office, 5 miles from the packing-house, but "Oakfield" is one. 

Senator Blair. That represents oleomargarine? 

Mr. Webster. Yes, sir. That is the brand, I believe, that some of 
our customers ask us to put on. 

Senator Van Wyck. Is there anything on that label indicating that 
it is oleomargarine or butterine? 

Mr. Webster. No, sir; nothing specially. 

Senator Blair. You sell in quantity to those who sell to the con- 
sumers'? 

Mr. Webster. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. Why should not they desire the thing they have to 
sell to be branded according to the fact? 

Mr. Webster. I cannot answer that ; that is their own matter. 

Senator Blair. Do you not understand that is a matter of deception 
on their part? 

Mr. Webster. Not altogether. A man may have a sort of private 
brand. Many people have private brands that they sell their products 
under; not this product specially, but many things which I should 
think it would be legitimate to mark with a brand. 

Senator Blair. But there is nothing on this package to indicate 
what it is. You say " Uakfield." We will suppose it is the name of a 
place or the name of a person; but there is nothing to indicate whether 
it is butter, butterine, oleomargarine, lard, or what not. 

Mr. Webster. They may have a brand that they put on after that. 

Senator Blair. They may have. 

Mr. Webster. Well, I do not pretend to follow it to its remotest 
limit. 

The Chairman. Would you, at the request of a customer, brand it 
" Oakfield Creamery," or " Oakfield Dairy," without using the word 
" butter." Would you put that on if they asked you to? 

Mr. Webster. 1 think we would. 

The Chairman. Simply "Oakfield Creamery," without the word 
"butter" attached to it ; simply "Oakfield Creamery," or "Oakfield 
Dairy," if a customer desired that brand put upon it ? 

Mr. Webster. I think we would. It is merely a distinguishing 
term as to quality. 

Senior Blair. Is there such a creamery in this country as the " Jak- 
field Creamery' ? 

Mr. Webster. Not that I know of. 

The Chairman. What do you think of the possibility of the business 
being carried on in a very small city of m.aking oleo oil by parties going 
around to the various butcher-shops and buying up the fat as fa-st as it 
is produced and taking it to their places of business and making it into 
oleo oil ? 

Mr. Webster. That is done in New York City to quite a large ex- 
tent. 

The Chairman. They go around to the various butchering establish- 
ments and get the fat? 

Mr. Webster. No, sir; not to the small butchers, but to the large 
slaughtering establishments. 

The Chairman. They could get it from small places as well as large 
ones? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 113 

Mr. Webster. It is not likely to be fresh in that case, and unless it 
is fresh it is utterly valueless. 

The Chairman. They could collect it every day ? 

Mr. Webster. It would have to be collected and handled in a very 
prompt manner, because where there is the slightest decomposition it 
is rendered entirelj' valueless for this prodnct. 

The Chairman. You say that is done in New York ? 

Mr. Webster. Among: the large slanghtering-houses 1 understand 
it is to some extent. I do not know it of mj^ own knowledge, but I un- 
derstand it is so. 

The Chairman, Ton have no knowledge of your own as to that? 

Mr. Webster. No, sir. 

The Chairman. You think ir might be done? 

Mr. Webster. Yes, I think it might be done safely. 

Senator Van Wyck. Who do you send to here in the District from 
your establishment ? 

Mr. Webster. We have a branch house of our own in the Center 
Market. I have made my statement from a commercial standpoint. I 
do not ])ret('nd to lie an expert in all these matters. 

The Chairman. That is the information we want. 

Mr. Webster. I thought so. 

Senator Jones. How long have you been engaged in the manufacture 
of oleomargarine and butterine? 

]\Ir. Webster. About four or five years; not exceeding five years. 

Senator Jones. Do you .know anything about its effect on the health 
of the consumers ? 

Mr. Webster. I never heard anything adversely concerning it. 

Senator Jones. Do you believe it is a wholesome article of food? 

Mr. Webster. I do most positively. I have used it in my family 
for years. 

Senator Jones. Do you use, in the manufacture of this article, the 
fat of animals which have died of disease, or any tilthv or disgusting 
fats ? 

Mr. Webster. Never. 

Senator Jones. Do you believe you could do it if you wished to? 

Mr. W^EBSTER. I do not think we could. 

Senator Jones. You think it would injure the product in such a way 
that you could not use it ? Do you use any poisons in the manufacture 
of these articles ? 

Mr. Webster. Nothing whatever approximating anything of that 
kind. 

Senator Jonp^.s. You stated awhile ago that you did not use mutton 
tallow. Why do you not use it? 

Mr. Webster. We have an outlet for that, and I have never known 
that it was suitable for this i)uri)ose. 

Senator Jones. Do you think it likely that there would be any odor 
connected with it that would render it unfit for this purpose? 

Mr. Webster. I should think there would be. I am not an expert 
on the subject, but I should judge so. I do not think it could be util- 
ized advantageously. 

Senator Jones. You spoke awhile ago about the rough fat of beeves 
and hogs as a distinct sort of fat. Do you use that in the manufacture 
of these articles ? 

Mr. Webster. We do not. We use only the selected parts from each 
animal — the caul fat from the steer and the leaf lard from the hog. 
17007 OL 8 



114 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Senator Jones. And you tbiuk it is a necessity to use tbat kiud alone, 
to make a success of the business of this manufacture t 

Mr. Webster. T^ndonbtedly it is. 

Senator Jones. Do you think that the manufacture of this article, 
and the utilization of every product of the hog and beef as it is butch- 
ered, tends generallj" to render the whole animal more valuable and 
enables you to sell the other products at a cheai)er rate? For instance, 
are you not able to sell the beef and other things at a lower rate than 
when you were compelled to dispose of them in a more limited market, 
or in the old way. 

Mr. Webster. I think it would naturally have that tendency. 

Senator Jones. Could you use rancid or refuse butter in making this 
product? 

Mr. Webster. We could not. 

Senator Jones. And you do not? 

Mr. Webster. We do not. We tried the experiment a year or two 
ago of buying some butter in the month of June and putting it in tierces 
and laying it away in our cooling rooms, thinking we might be able to 
use it in the fall; but we sold that butter recently for five cents a i)ound, 
which is the price ot common grease. 

Senator Jones. Could small butchers in small towns profitably use 
the fat of their animals for this i)uri)ose ? 

Mr. Webster. They could not. It requires a certain plant, machin- 
ery, and exi)ert knowledge. 

Senator Jones. I should like to have an idea, if you can give it to 
me, about what you think would be the value of the smallest plant that 
could be protitably used in this sort of manufacture. 

Mr. Webster, in manufacturing oleo oil and neutral, you mean, I 
suppose. 

Senator Jones. Yes. 

Mr. Webster. I should not think a plant could be constructed that 
would be of any profitable service under five or six thousand dollars; 
ours probably cost $100,000. 

Senator Jones. And it would cost more than that to be able to man- 
ufacture oleomargarine and butterine as it is prepared for the market, 
or would that plant be sufficient? 

Mr. Webster. The smaller the quantity produced of either of these 
products, the greater would be its approximate cost. 

Senator Jones. 1 understand that ; but do you meau that a plant 
costing five or six thousand dollars would justify a man's entering into 
this? 

Mr. Webster. I thought your question related to the plant in a small 
town. 

Senator Jones. It does ; but I should suppose that even a plant put 
up in a small town would necessitate the butchering of a certain num- 
ber of animals before the man could profitably enter this field of man- 
ufacture. 

Mr. Webster. It is merely a matter of conjecture; I am not able to 
answer that question satisfactorily. 

Senator Jones. If I tell you my object, perhaps you will get the idea 
I have in my mind. If there was a law requiring the licensing, for in- 
stance, of these manufactories, would it be possible that there could be 
a manufactory of this kind, an underground establishment, so to speak, 
that could be profitably conducted where it would not be likely to be 
found out by the officers of the law; or would it necessarily have to be 
conducted in such a large way that there would be no difficulty in find- 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 115 

iug- out wlio was in the business of manufacturing butterine and oleo- 
margerine as a food project. 

Mr. Webster. I think that would depend a great deal upon the 
amount of tax, if taxation should be decided upon. I recollect an ex- 
perience in the old whisky times, when high wines were worth 30 cents 
a gallon and the tax was $2, that our house in Xew York used to receive 
consignments and make advances of 25 to 30 cents a gallon for ship- 
ments made to us in bond from various distillers in the West. I have 
sold that whisky repeatedly at 30 to 35 cents a gallon with a $2 tax, 
and have seen it on the market next day at $1.50. 

Senator Jones. I understand, of course, the difficulties that we are 
met with in a matter of that sort, and there would be necessarily, in any 
licensing system that could be adopted, evasions. But what I wanted 
to get at was whether they could be easily detected ? 

Mr. Webster. And more especially in a tax system, if j on will allow 
me to correct you — you said a license system — would a specific tax en- 
courage that kind of illegitimate business. 

Senator Jones. Still you do not get my point. If a law was adopted 
the object of which was simply to have this ])roduct brf^nded and put 
on the market honestly, so that the people would know exactly what it 
meant, and if there was a license system for all manufacturers simply 
for the purpose of enabling the officers of the law to find out where this 
article was produced, and to follow back to its origin any packages 
that they might find in the market, how would that operate? That is 
what I want to get at. 

Mr. Webster. I do not think there could be very much, if any, pro- 
duced under those circumstances. 

Senator Jones. There would be no dilSculty in regard to the matter 
with any concern which manufactured an amount of it that would be 
profitable? 

Mr. Webster. No, sir. 

Senator Van Wyck. You do not think there would be as much dan- 
ger of the illicit manufacture of oleomargarine as there is of whisky, for 
instance? 

Mr. Webster. Jso, sir; unless they had a i)rotiibitory tax. 

The Chairman. I understood you to say that if the matter were 
under regulation of law, and placed altogether under the control of the 
Government, it would not be easy to establish small factories to evade 
the law, because they would be readily discovered ? 

Mr. Webster. Yes; and that is with merely a licensing law, com- 
pelling a branding of the product. 

The Chairman. The business has to be carried on in such an open 
way in the rendering of lard, «&c., that any one could find the place ; it 
could not be easily covered up. 

Mr. Webster. I think that is so. 

Senator Blair. What tax do you think could be borne without lead- 
ing to attempts at evasion ? 

Mr. Webster. I do not think any tax at all could be borne. 

Senator Blair. It would not depend so much upon the amount of 
the tax — I understood you to say that. 

The Chairman. A small tax would not be apt to be evaded so much 
as a large tax, of course. 

Are there any other gentlemen here, from the West particularly, who 
desire to be heard ? 

Senator Jones. There is a gentleman from New England, I think 
from Rhode Island, who will be here to-morrow, who desires to be heard. 



11 G IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

The Chairman. I told some geutlemeii who wanted to be heard ou 
the other side that we would hear them tomorrow; but if there is any- 
tbiDg more to-day I should like to hear it. 

Mr. Webster. A few days ago we seut from Chicago a number of 
samples of all these different products. They have arrived, and we 
have seut for them this morning, and it will give us great pleasure to 
exhibit them to you if you will allow us the opportunity. We have 
samples of oleomargarine, butterine, oleo oil, and neutral. 

The Chairman. We will look at them in the morning. If no one 
desires to be heard at present, we will adjourn until to-morrow at 10 
o'clock. 

The committee then adjourned until Thursday, June 17, 1886, at 10 a. m. 



Washington, D. C, Thursday, June 17, 1886. 

The committee met, pui\suant to adjournment, at 10 o'clock a. m. 

The Chairman. Mr. Webster desires to submit a few additional re- 
marks to those he made yesterday. 

Mr. George H. Webster. Two questions were propounded to me 
yesterday which 1 did not answer satisfactorily to myself, although of 
course uninteutionally. One of them was addressed to me by the chair- 
man, and the other by Senator Jones. The chairman's question was 
whether we ever made oleo oil from anything but the caul fat. I hav- 
ing the Armour & Co. brand in my mind, told him that we did not. We 
do make a second brand from the kidney fat, but its preparation is very 
small and it goes exclusively to Holland. I do not think we sell a hun- 
dred packages of it in this country; it goes to Holland entirely. I had 
our Armour & Co. brand in my mind when you asked me the question, 
and I thought it was onb' right to put myself properly on record, as it 
was an unintentional oversiglit. 

Senator George. Are you connected with the Armour factories? 

Mr. Webster. 1 am a member of the firm. 

Senator George. I was not here yesterday, and that was the reason 
I asked the question. 

Mr. Webster. Senator Jones asked me a question yesterday which 
I have given consideration to since, but which I did not quite appre- 
ciate at the time, and I would like to make a further explanation or 
answer to that question. 

The Chairman. You may do so. 

Mr. Webster. Senator Jones asked me about the cost of a plant, and 
whether the manufacture of oleo oil could be profitably or consistently 
carried ou in small places. In thinking the matter over further. I think 
the cost of a plant to manufacture oleo oil would be larger, as it would 
necessitate all the paraphernalia and fixtures of a large slaughter-house, 
which, of course, would be very expensive, and probably cost twice the 
sum I named as a minimum. And as to the number of cattle which a 
man with a moderate plant would be required to handle in order to make 
it at all profitable, I should think that a plant costing ten, fifteen, or 
tweutj' thousand dollars would require the handling of ten thousand 
cattle, and not only that, but oleo oil being such a small percentage of 
the product of the animal, he would require to find a market for all that 
beef, which is no small matter, as the average country butcher only 
slaughters from twenty to thirty cattle a week, say from 1,000 to 1,500 
a year. So that the point is, that it would be impossible to carry on 
this business to any extent in any surreptitious manner and in a man- 
ner that could not l3e directly traceable. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 117 

Senator Geoege. In addition to tliat, it is an industry wliicli could 
only be carried on by men of large capital. Small capitalists are not, 
by the conditions of the business, allowed to invest in it. 

Mr. Webster. It does not necessarily require a very large capital, 
but a liberal capital. 

Senator George. Well, $20,000 or $30,000; that is a large capital in 
my part of the country. 

Mr. Webster. Yes; very likely it would. 

The Chairman. Did you state yesterday whether you could give us 
an estimate of the entire amount of oleomargarine and butterine made 
in this country ? 

Mr. Webster. There are no statistics on that point, and it would be 
entirely a matter of conjecture. I have had that in my mind, and would 
be very glad indeed if I could be of some tangible service in giving 
them, but I cannot. 

The Chairman. I think you stated that there were about thirty man- 
ufactories that you knew of. 

Mr. Webster. Yes ; in the United States. I can make out an esti- 
mate if you would like to have it. 

The Chairman. I would like to have your data. 

Mr, Webster. I will give you the data from which I obtain it, and 
submit it for what is worth ; but there are no statistics that I know of, 
or I should be glad to submit them. 

The Chairman. I did not know but what the people engaged in the 
business, knowing each other, might know pretty uearly what it was. 
But we would be glad to have your estimate if you will send it to us. 

Mr. Webster. 1 will do so. 

Senator Blair. Were there any census statistics on the subject. 

Mr. Webster. I think not. I never have seen any. 

Mr. William J. Campbell. At the adjournment yesterday Mr. 
W^ebster stated that he had some samples showing the various stages 
of manufacture of these products, and if any of the Senators desire to 
see them they are here and they can do so. 

The Chairman. I think we had better wait until we get through the 
regular hearing and then all will have an opportunity to examine them. 
It was intended to give the time to-day to people appearing in favor of 
the bill ; but I understand there are two or three people here from 
Chicago who did not have an opportunity to be heard yesterday, and 
who desire to address the committee to-day. We can hear them now 
if they will make their statements very brief, or perhaps they can put 
them in writing, to go into print with the rest of the statements, be- 
cause these proceeding are all to be printed, and of course each member 
of the Senate and of the committee will have a copy of the entire pro- 
ceedings. If any of these parties have their statements prepared in 
writing, they might make some explanatory remarks, submit them, and 
let them be printed. 

Mr, William J. Campbell. Mr. Hammond desires to make a state* 
ment. 

STATEMENT OF FREDERICK HAMMOND. 

Mr, Frederick Hammond, of Boston, Mass., then addressed the 
committee : 

I am employed as manager by George H, Hammond & Co. for the 
sale of their oleomargarine or butterine in New England, with head- 
quarters at No. 54 Chatham street, Boston, Mass. I was employed for 
the position about three and a half years ago, at which time this firm 



118 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

commenced the manufacture of oleomargarine or butterine. Since that 
time a large amount of these goods has passed through my manage- 
ment, most entirely to the jobbers of butter and oleomargarine in Bos- 
ton and its vicinity. I have here affidavits stating that we sell and bill 
the goods honestly and strictly according to the law. While we do not 
usually sell in small quantities, many people come to our place of busi- 
ness and ask us to sell a single tub for use in their families. We have 
done this in some instances, but being manufacturers, we prefer to do 
a wholesale trade. I have used our goods in my own family for the 
past three years. I never have heard of any injurious effects from the 
use of these articles, and I believe them to be a perfectly hcialthful arti- 
cle of food and a much needed product for the poorer classes. 1 most 
positively have reason to believe, and do believe, that most all of this class 
of goods sold in Massachusetts is sold to the consumer honestly for just 
what they are, and at such low prices that the consumer is much benefited 
thereby. A very large proportion of these goods sold in Massachusetts 
is sold to consumers in small tubs and unbroken packages, 

I have here the affidavits of my book-keeper and salesman which I 
will read if the committee desires to hear it. 

Senator GeorGtE. If you have them reduced to Avritiug they will be 
printed. You can just give a general statement of the points you want 
to make and submit the paper and let it be printed. 

Mr. Hammond. I will do so. 

Senator George. In whose behalf do you appear ? 

Mr. Hammond. I represent the firm of George H. Hammond & Com- 
pany. 

Senator George. W^here is their factory ? 

Mr. Hammond. At Hammond, Indiana. 

The Chairman. How are the goods branded when they come to you 
in Boston ? 

Mr. Hammond, They are not branded at all. 

The Chairman. What brands, if any, do you put on the packages'? 

Mr. Hammond. We put on, 1 think, a simple brand ; we brand them 
according to the laws of the State of Massachusetts ui)on tbeir arrival 
in Boston. Here is a copy of the brand [exhibiting]. That is the 
regular stamp. " Calumet" is our trade-mark. 

The (Jhairman. Do any of these goods come in branded with merely 
some fancy name of a creamery or dairy ? 

Mr. Hammond. They have no mark on them at all. Our goods are 
shipped to us in car-load lots. They are shipped by our own firm to 
their own house in Boston, a branch house. 

The Chairman. The inspector in Boston stated to us yesterday that 
these goods came from various manufactories into Boston and into 
Massachusetts, branded sometimes as the "Oakfield Creamery," with- 
out any other brand on them, or branded "Eureka Creamery" or 
"Eureka Dairy." Did you ever see any goods branded in that way ? 
. Mr. Hammond. I never have. 

The Chairman. Your goods are all branded in this way after they 
arrive; they come without a brand? 

Mr. Hammond. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. You sell to the retail dealer ? 

Mr. Hammond. No, sir; we sell to jobbers most exclusively. 

The Chairman. You are the agent, then, of the manufacturer, and 
sell to the wholesale dealer or jobber and not to the retail dealer? 

Mr. Hammond. No, sir. 

The Chairman. In selling to a jobber, you sell it to them for what 
it is ? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 119 

Mr. Hammokd. We Jo. ' 

The Chairman. In all cases ? 

Mr. Hammond. In all cases. 

Senator Blair. How much did you sell last year *? 

Mr. Hammond. I have not the exact figures ; I could, perhaps, ap- 
proximate the amount nearly. 

Senator Blair. That is all we expect. 

Mr. Hammond. I should state, probably, a million and a quarter 
pounds. 

Senator Blair. What proportion of the amount sold in Massachu- 
setts did you sell ; in other words, how much was sold in Massachusetts 
besides what you sold "? 

Mr. Hammond. I have no way of knowing. 

Senator Blair. Do you think you sold half of the total amount? 

Mr. Hammond. I should think we did. 

Senator Blair. Do you sell for this Chicago firm of Armour & Com- 
pany ; do you sell their goods in Massachusetts ? 

Mr. Hammond. No, sir; George H. Hammond & Company represent 
their own house in Boston. 

Senator Blair. Then there is that great firm besides yours which 
carries goods without some mark, and you say you sold over a million 
pounds last year? 

Mr. Hammond. I think we did. 

Senator Blair. Are there any other dealers who fiind a market in 
Massachusetts besides yourself and Armour & Company? 

Mr. Hammond. There are a few goods shipped there from the Provi- 
dence, R. I., manufactory. 

Senator Blair. Are any shipped from Kansas City? 

Mr. Hammond. I never have seen any from Kansas City. 

The Chairman. These goods go into all the interior towns of New 
England as well as to Boston"? 

Mr. Hammond. The principal trade is in the manufacturing cities of 
Lawrence, Lowell, Fall River, and Worcester. 

Senator George. Do you understand that the sales are made in those 
cities of these goods to be used by the operatives; you understand that 
to be the fact ? 

Mr. Hammond. Yes, sir; I am positive of that fact. 

Senator George. To be sold to operatives employed in the factories ? 

Mr. Hammond. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. How do you know that '? 

Mr. HammOxND. I have visited the places and visited the families 
personally, and am posted in regard to the matter. 

Senator Jones. Do they know what they are using! 

Mr. Hammond. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. Give me the name of any family or operative that 
you ever visited who is using it. 

Senator Blair. These oiteratives, as a rule, are boarded, are they 
not! 

Mr. Hammond. I do not know how to answer that question. There 
are oi)eratives who board at the public houses, but I should say not as 
a rule. 

Senator Blair. I think, as a rule, they do not board at hotels. The 
manufacturers board their help practically. The cost of the operative 
enters into the cost of the manufacture, and they make it a*^ cheaj) as 
they can, and so feed them on oleomargarine, and they do not know the 
difference. 



120 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Mr. Hammond. In answer to the chairman's question, I would refer 
him to the names signed to the i^etitions which 1 have presented, three 
hundred of them. 

Senator Jones. I observe that one of the petitions which is signed 
here reads: " We, the undersigned citizens of Worcester and vicinity, do 
hereby state that we have at different times bought for family use a 
butter substitute known as oleomargarine or butteriue, and that we 
bought the same knowingly, and because it gave us much better satis- 
faction than any natural butter we could purchase at the same price." 
That is signed by a considerable number of persons apparently. Do 
you know anything" about that; you file that with your paper? 

Mr. Hammond. 1 file that with my statement. 

Senator Jones. Do you know anything about these persons? 

Mr. Hammond. I did not get those signatures personally ; no, sir. 

The Chairman. How are those names procured ? 

Mr. Hammond. Those names are procured by going around to the 
l^eoi^le whom the retailers kjiew used it and whom they sold it to, and 
getting them to sign their names to that effect. There is one paper 
there that I passed around myself amongst a few friends that I know, 
and in those instances 1 know the statement to be correct. 

Senator Blair. There is no doubt, I take it from your testimony and 
that of others, that where this article is well made, many people use it 
knowingly, and from choice, on account of its cheapness! 

Mr. Hammond. Yes, they do; that has been my experience. 

Senator George. "W hat is the difference between the retail price of 
good oleomargarine and good butter? 

Mr. Hammond. That deiiends on the season of the year somewhat. 

Senator George. Well, indicate both seasons so as to give us an idea 
about it. 

Mr. Hammond. Doyou mean ordinary straight oleomargarine? There 
are as many different grades almost as of butter. It sells from 10 to 30 
cents a pound. 

Senator George. Compare it on the basis of Jersey butter first. 

Mr. Hammond. We have not had -auy experience in Jersey butter up 
our way. 

Senator George. W\^11, take the best butter on the market, then, and 
the best oleomargarine; put it that way. 

Mr. Hammond. I should think there was a saving to the consumer 
of 8 to 10 cents a pound. 

Senator George. The difference would be 8 to 10 cents a pound? 

Mr. Hammond. I should say so. 

The Chairman. Do you know what the wholesale price of butter is 
in Boston now? 

Mr. Hammond. No, not the wholesale price. 

The Chairman. I suppose you are in the habit»of looking at the price 
current pul)lished every day in the newspapers? 

Mr. Hammond. Yes, sir. ^ 

The Chairman. Then state what the wholesale price of butter is. 

Mr. Hammond. There has been a little rise in butter lately. It was 
down to about 17 cents, but now I think the best butter coming to 
Boston and being put away in storehouses for next winter's use is about 
21 cents, or was when 1 left Boston. 

Senator George. Y^ou mean the wholesale price? 

Mr. Hammond, Yes, sir. 

Senator George. What is the wholesale price of the best oleomar- 
garine ? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 121 

Mr. Hammond. The wholesale price of best olfomargariiie is 11 cents 
in Boston. 

Senator George. 11 cents and 21 cents, then, are tbe fignres. 

Mr. Hammond, Yes; that is tbe present price. I do not give the 
price of butter as 21 cents positively; but that is about the price of it. 

Senator Blair. Does the price of oleomargarine liuctuate with that 
of butter"? Does it fluctuate according to the butter market or does it 
establish a price of its own and hold it? 

Mr. Hammond. The price of oleomargarine is governed by the price 
of oleomargarine more than it is by the price of butter. Still, of course, 
when butter is high it causes a larger number of people to use it instead 
of paying high prices for butter, and that makes the demand for oleo- 
margarine larger at certain seasons of the year ; it increases the demand 
for oleomargarine. 

Senator GtEorge. It is increased owing to the high price of butter? 

Mr. Hammond. Yes, sir. When people cannot ati'ord to pay 40 or 50 
cents a i)ound for butter they buy a cheaper article. 

Senator Blair. Do any of these families you know of use both arti- 
cles — sometimes one and sometimes the other? 

Mr. Hammond. Yes. 

Senator Blair. Knowing what each article is, of course! 

Mr. Hammond. Yes. 

Senator Blair. Can you think of some instance — can you tell the 
prices that such x'^i'sons, with knowledge, were i)aying at the same 
time for oleomargarine and for butter? 

Mr. Hammond. A family in my neighborhood buys oleomargarine of 
me. They buy a ten-pound tub about ODce in two weeks, and they use 
it principally lor cooking puri)ose •. I also buy for them as a mere ac- 
commodation (they are near neighbors) a very nice grade of creamery < 
butter for table use. 

The (Jhairman. Why do they not use the oleomargarine for table use 
as well as for cooking? 

Mr. Hammond. They like butter better on the table. 

The Chairman. Could they not buy good lard for cooking cheaper 
than oleomargarine? 

Mr. HA3IM0ND. They probably could, but they do not like it as well. 
They get more service and better satisfaction out of the oleomargarine. 

Senator Blair. What criticism do these families make to you of the 
two articles as articles of table use? They make a criticism, 1 suppose, 
which would be indicated by what they do, which is that the butter is 
better for table use, more palatable, and more agreeable to use on bread, 
and that the other is as good, because cheaper, for cooking purposes, or 
something of that kind — or what do they say ? 

Mr. Hammond. A fine grade of fresh butter is better for the table 
than a standard grade of oleomargarine. 

Senator Blair. Well, then, take a fine grade of oleomargarine. 

Mr. Hammond. We make a standard grade of oleomargarine, but I 
am not familiar with the high grades of so-called butterine. 

The Chairman. Do you know what the average wholesale price of 
good butter has been in Boston for the last three or four years? 

Mr. Hammond. No, sir; I could not give you the figures. 

The Chairman. Or in New York or elsewhere"? 

Mr. Hammond. No, sir. 

The CiiAERMAN. You spoke about butter being 40 to 50 cents a pound. 
If you know anything at all about the sale of butter, you must know 



122 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

that there has uot beeu auj^ such average price of butter iu cities for 
years. 

Mr. nAMMOND. I said in m.y statement that when butter was at that 
price. 

The Chairman. But butter has not been at that average price for 
years. 

Senator Jones. You say you use this oleomargarine in your own fam- 
ily? 

Mr. Hammond. I do. 

Senator Jones. Do you use butter also I 

Mr. Hammond. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. In what proportion do you use oleomargarine and 
butter ? 

Mr. Hammond. About one-half of each. 

Senator Jones. Equal quantities, you mean f 

Mr. Hammond. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. Do you use oleomargarine on your table or for cook- 
ing purposes only ! 

Mr. Hammond. I have when butter was worth 40 or 50 cents a pound 
at retail, and that took place in February or March of this year. We 
could uot buy a good piece of natural butter at our retail grocery at less 
than 45 cents a pouud. At that time I preferred oleomargarine on my 
table. 

Senator Jones. What was the retail price of oleomargarine at that 
time i 

Mr. Hammond. About 15 cents. 

Senator Jones. Your chief use of oleomargarine, then, is for cooking 
purposes? 

Mr. Hammond. Amongst a certain class of trade, the operatives; 
among a certain class of people. , 

Senator Jones. I am speaking of your own case. 

Mr. Hammond. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. What were you going to say about operatives? 

Mr. Hammond. They use it largely on their tables, and the moderate 
class of people use it largely on their tables. So do the medium class 
of i)eoi)le use it largely on their tables. 

Senator George. You mean people whose income does not exceed 
$1,500 or !|ii,0(»0 a year. 

Mr. Hammond. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. You use the oleomargarine for cooking and also upon 
your table? 

Mr. Hammond. Yes, generally, when butter is high, but not when 
it is cheap and good. 

Senator Blair. The experts testify that no mortal man can tell the 
difference between the two. If that is so, why is it that you pay the 
differeuce iu the price? 

Mr. Hammond. Did not that refer to scientific experiments? 

Senator Blair. Do you have reference to the statements of the ex- 
j)erts. Dr. Mortou and others? 

Mr. Hammond. Was he not speaking in the sense of a scientific ex- 
pert ? 

Senator Blair. I did not understand him so. 

Senator Jones. I do not think anybody has made that statement here. 

Senator Blair. I do — that except by scientific tests the consumer 
could not tell the difference. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 123 

Senator Jones. My reniembrauce of it is that he said it was very 
mucli alike, but that the flavor of olemargariDe was never as good as 
the flavor of butter, because of the small proportion of butyrine. They 
all said that, according to my recollection. 

Mr. Hammond. I understood that testimony to be expert testimony 
given in a scientific way. 



STATEMENT OF GARDINER B. CHAPIN. 

Mr. Gardiner B. Chapin, of Boston, then addressed the committee. 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: I did not come here to make any 
extended remarks, for I have given my testimony once before to this 
committee. But I merely want to call your attention to some testi- 
mony that was given here yesterday and also today. There seems to 
be a good deal of difference in the opinion of the gentlemen in regard 
to the value of these goods, and the value that they have upon the 
market. 

Senator George. Do you mean the i>rice? 

Mr. Chapin. Yes; the price. I am chairman of the committee on 
market reports of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, and have been 
on that committee every year, with the exception, I think, of two or 
three years, since the old Produce Exchange, which was finally merged 
into the Chamber of Commerce, was first organized, and I claim to have 
some knowledge of the market value of the goods. It is my duty every 
day while I am at home to make up a list of prices to telegraph to the 
principal markets of the world — that is, in the United States and to 
Liverpool. 

Senator George. You refer to the wiiolesale prices? 

Mr. Chapin. Yes ; to the wholesale prices. 1 am somewhat conver- 
sant with the retail prices, but not so much so as the wholesale, for I have 
a brother wiiio is in the retail business, and I supply him with the most 
of his goods except oleomargerine and butterine. That he buys of our 
neighbors generally. Professor Chandler, I think it was, stated that the 
wholesale cost of oleomargerine was, 1 think, six or seven cents, or per- 
haps eight conts. 

Senator George. The cost of manufacture? 

Mr. Chapin. Y^es, sir; and that it was put on to the market at the 
price of nine and a half to ten cents. I will admit that from the testi- 
mony I heard yesterday, and that which I have heard since I came to 
Washington, I am perfectly demoralized, and I am not really in a fit 
state to make a statement here to-day. And that is caused by hearing 
such a difl'erent statement of facts from what we have been educated to 
and what we have learned from our daily experience, so that I am not 
able to meet those statements as they ought to be met. We did not 
come here prepared to meet any such testimony. We came here to give 
you the practical view, not the scientific view. We have no one here 
that I know of to give you the scientific principles in regard to the man- 
facture of these goo«ls. 

The Chairman. That is not what we are inquiring after now; it is 
the comoiercial view of it that we want. 

JNIr. Chapin. I notice the i)rice of butter has been given at 80 cents a 
pound; I did not hear any other price named during the giving of this 
testimony. Now, as regards the 80-ceut butter, I will say that right 
opposite where I live is the old Peter C. Brooks estate, an estate which 



124 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

has been iu possession of one family for many, many years, and I un- 
derstand tbat they have made dairy butter for some of their Boston 
friends and charged them $1.10 a pound. But in our business we know 
nothing of such prices at all. It is like comparing the gold stud which 
I wear in my V)osom with a diamond worth a thousand dollars. 

I want to say a word with regard to the execution of the law. Pro- 
fessor Babcock says that the law is executed in Massachusetts as well 
as it can be. 

Senator George. Do you mean the law prohibiting the sale of oleo- 
margarine for butter? 

Mr. Chapin. No, not prohibiting the sale of it, but the law regulating 
the sale of it. The law requires every dealer in oleomargarine to brand 
his butter with a half inch letter on the cover and also on the side of the 
package. They testify that that butter comes to Boston without any 
mark on it whatever. Even if it is branded every butter dealer iu Bos- 
ton is supposed to have what we call a scratcher and a stencil or brand 
which he can get for twenty tive cents, and I know that the brands on 
that butter are scratched off and the brand reprinted after it reaches 
Boston — I mean oleomargarine. I testified before this committee on the 
28th of Aprilthat aparty told me — that is, he was selling a certain butter, 
and I gave you the brand of it at that time. He was selling from 500 
to 700 packages a week under that brand and was selling it for butter. 
I bought ten packages of him, and requested him to brand it butterine 
before he sent it to my place of business, and he said there was no 
necessity for it; he said : " We are selling 500 to 700 packages a week 
just as It is." He told me they were agents for a Chicago firm. As it 
is not customary here to mention names, I will not mention the name 
unless some member wants it. 

Senator George. Oh, let us have the name. 

Mr. Chapin. I refer to Fairbanks & Co., of Chicago, A brand of but- 
ter was mentioned here yesterday ; that is one brand ; I will not say that 
Fairbanks & Co. make the brand that was mentioned by Professor Bab- 
cock yesterday, the Eureka brand, but that was one of tlie brands I 
was talking about. There is also another one which people attribute 
to Fairbanks «& Co. 

The Chairman. That is branded simply as " Eureka Dairy" or "Eu- 
reka Creamery," without the words butterine or oleomargarine. It does 
not contain the words oleomargarine or butterine, but simply " Eureka 
Dairy." 

Mr. Chapin. That was all there was on it. 

Senator Jones. Was that scratching of these packages you spoke of 
just now a violation of the law ? 

Mr. Chapin. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. Did you report the people who were guilty of that 
violation of the law which you say you knew about ? 

Mr. Chapin. No, sir ; I did not. 

Senator Jones. You knew, then, of a violation of the law which you 
did not report ? 

Mr. Chapin. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. Are such violations generally reported by those who 
know of them ? 

Mr. Chapin. No, sir; they are not, because a man does not want to 
get into trouble with his neighbor. 

Senator Blair. Do you mean that the law is practically a dead let- 
ter"? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 125 

Mr. Ohapin. Yes, it is practically a dead letter. Once in a while 
there is a prosecution, just enough to keep in mind tlie fact that there 
is a law in the State of Massachusetts to that effect. Perhaps Mr. 
Babcock does his duty as well as he can ; I have uot a word to say in 
regard to that. Bnt I do say that when ]Mr. Babcock makes the state- 
ment that he can detect oleomargai'ine or butterine by the looks of the 
package, or by thehoo[)8 0u the package, it is preposterous. There is 
uot a butter dealer in Bostou who would dare to stand up here and make 
that assertion. There is not a butter dealer in Boston who could detect 
it every time or one time in live by tasting of the goods; and 1 claim 
to be an expert. I have been in business thirty-four years, and make no 
use of tobacco or intoxicating <lrinks in any manner, and 1 claim to have 
what is called a pure taste for goods. I have obtained my living by 
tasting right along for thirty-four years. 

Senator George. Do you mean that the taste of butter and the taste 
of oleoujargarine are so nearly alike that it could not be detectedf 

Mr. Chapin. No, sir; that is not the idea I wish to convey. But 
there is some poor butter and some good oleomargarine that it would 
be hard to distinguish a]iart. But we claim we can detect good butter 
from good oleomargarine. We cannot taste a difference between au 
ordinary grade of butter and an ordinary or pretty good grade of oleo- 
margarine. That is where we have trouble. 

Senator Blair. Then if you experts by actually tasting cannot tell 
the difference, of course it is understood that the mass of the people 
are unable to detect one from the other? 

Mr. Chapin. Yes, that is the case. I live in a town 5 miles Jrom 
Boston, called West Medford. In our town we have about 2,200 inhabit- 
ants, J believe. Since I returned home from giving testimony before to 
this committee, I have made it a poiut to investigate the matter. 1 did 
uot think of getting up a petition, as the gentleman who preceded me 
did, or anything of that kind. But I have asked the dealers in regard 
to it, and I think there are four in our place who sell butter, and they 
all say the same thing and give the same answer, and that is that there 
are but very few, that the i)ercentage is very small, of peo|)le who ask 
for oleomargarine. Among the inquiries that I made was one of a man 
who receives a salary of $1,800 a year, and he said it was the most in- 
iquitous legislation he had ever read or heard of in his life. He said, " It 
means that I have to pay 10 cents a pound more for my butter." I said 
to him, " That does not necessarily follow. I think you are making a 
great hue aud cry about the advance iu the price of butter, provided 
this bill passes Congress, taxing oleomargarine 5 cents a pouud. My 
dear sir, if the price of butter is advanced 2 cents a pouud, it will stop 
the exportation of every single pound of butter for the time being, and 
throw the surplus onto the market, and in that way the price will reg- 
ulate itself. Therefore you need have no fear about any fabulous prices 
of butter being reached on account of the passage of this bill taxing 
oleomargarine 5 cents a pound." 

The Chairman. What is the wholesale price of butter in Bostou 
now ? 

Mr. Chapin. When 1 left Boston, the Boston Chamber of Commerce 
was quoting it at 18 to 18^ cents. In my own reports, which we tele- 
graph to other markets, it was 18 to 19 cents for the best creameries in 
Bostou, that is, the best butter that comes to Bostou to my knowledge. 

Senator George. Is that the butter which those high-toned people 
who live on Beacon street consume ? 



126 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Mr. Chapin. Yes, those living- on Beacou street ami by the proprie- 
tors of the Parker House, Youug-s Hotel, and that class of customers. 
They eat it ; it is the highest i)ricod butter. 

Senator Jokes, Do you know whether the Parker Honse had a eon- 
tract ibr butter, a year ago, to be delivered at 75 cents a ijound the year 
round ? 

Mr. Chapin. ] never heard of it ; it may be so. 

Senator J ONES. What class of ])eople live in the town of Medford — 
merchants engaged in business and in good circumstances, or the poorer 
class of people — operatives? 

Mr. Chapin. The majority of them, I think, are clerks and school 
teachers, ex-school teachers, &c. We have quite a number of school 
teachers who teach in Boston and live there, as well as quite a number 
of Boston mei chants and some poor people. Since 1 returned from giv- 
ing testimony before tliis committee, people have made it a sort of head- 
qnarteis at my ])lace of business to discuss this bill, and Mr. Hibbard, 
who came on here with me — 

The Chairman. We have not time for that discussion here. We want 
to know in relation to the prices and to obtain your own knowledge as 
to how oleomargarine is sold. There are many gentlemen here from all 
over the country, and we cannot undertake to listen to an argument in 
regard to what takes i>lace in small towns. 

Senator Blair. I would like to hear the discussion he was going to 
repeat. 

The Chairman. Very well, if he will confiue himself to a statement 
of the facts. 

Mr. Chapin. There were half a dozen merchants in my place of busi- 
ness talking this matter over, and some of them were in favor of it, those 
who deal in the Blackstone market; and one of them said I ought to be 
hung for the part I had taken in this discussion ; and there was a labor- 
ing man, an Irishman, who stood near by, whom I have been acquainted 
with several years, and I turned to him and said, " Henry, have you 
ever known one of your people to go into a grocery store and call for a 
pound of oleomargarine ? " He said, " Mr, Chapin, never in my life." He 
said, " Those are the men who eat oleomargarine." 

Senator Sawyer. I do not think it is necessary to spend any more time 
on that portion of the subject. 

The Chairman. Just give the committee your opinion as to whether 
the Massachusetts law compelling oleomargarine to be sold for what it 
is is generally carried out and enforced, and to what extent. 

Mr. Chapin, Mr, Babcock referred to certain prosecutions under the 
law. 

The Chairman. You need not repeat anything Mr. Babcock said, I 
ask simply for your opinion, as chairman of the committee of the 
Chamber of Commerce of the city of Boston in regard to the enforce- 
ment of the law. 

Mr. Chapin. I cannot make my statement in any other way except 
by illustration. 

' The Chairman. I ask you whetlier you believe the law compelling 
oleomargarine to be sold in the State of Massachusetts for what it is is 
generally enforced 1 

xMr. Chapin. Mr. Senator, I want to ask you the privilege of proving 
my assertion. In the first place, I say it is not enforced. Il^ow, I want 
to prove it V)y Mr. Babcock. 

The Chairman. You say it is not enforced. Why do you say it is 
not enforced ? 



IMITATION DAIRY PKODl'CT.S. 127 

Mr. Chapin. Mr. Babcock said tlieie were four persoii.s (under tlie 
administration of Mr. Grifiiu, I tliinlv be said) wbo were couiphnued ot 
for selling oleomargarine contrary to tbe law of Massacbusetts, and at 
a certaiu stage of tlie ijrosecution some of tbe dealers fouud out tbat 
tbose men were their customers, aud tbey tben asked for tbe warrants 
to be put on file. Now tbe party wbo asked that privilege of the deputy 
sberiff I think is in this room. I think be is connected with tbe manu- 
facture of oleomargarine. To illustrate : Knowing tbe fact tbat one of 
my neighbors is selling oleomargarine — that is, I mistrust tbat be is — I 
go to the milk inspector aud inform him that I think m^' neighbor is 
selling oleomargarine contrary to tbe laws of tbe State. He sends bis 
deputy and makes an inspection to tbat effei-t, and if be finds they are 
selling it in that way, why, of course, be enforces the law. ];!yow 1 will 
state another fact. A gentleman came into my place one morning aud 
said, " One of yoiir customers has been i)ros('cuted for selling oleomar- 
garine contrary to tbe law of the State. Now,'" be says, "if you will 
see Mr. So-and-so (I may as well mention bis name; it is Noyes «Sc Son), 
if you will tell Noyes to put $50 in a sealed envelope somebody will be 
in here and ])ick it up and that will be an end of bis suit." I said that 
that was a rascally j;iece of buciness and 1 would have nothing to do 
witb it. But I understood afterwards from good authority that the 
money was put down somewhere and picked uj), and tbat was tbe end 
of bis i)rosecution. Tbat was before Mr. Babcock's administration. I 
think it was done under tbe board of health. 

Senator Jones. How long ago did that happen f 

Mr. Chapin. About three years ago. 

Senator Jones. And in regard to these other cases you spoke of ? 

Mr. Chapin. Tbey were dropped, aud tbe indictment quashed right 
there. 

Senator Jones. I would like to ask one question in this connection. 
Wben you take so mucb interest in this matter at your place of busi- 
ness, which you say is a kind of headquarters for i)eople wbo are inter- 
ested iu this matter, and you yourself take such a lively and deep in- 
terest in tbe suppression of this traffic, why, tben, do you not report 
some of those people wbo violate the law to tbe officers of tbe law, whose 
business it is to prosecute them ? 

Mr. Chapin. 1 did not say that I bad informed against any of them iu 
particular. 

Senator Jones. 1 understand ; you said you bad not. But you said 
you knew of parties wbo violated the law. Now I want to know why a 
good citizen of tbe State of Massachusetts, as you are, does not prose- 
cute the violators of the law when tbey tbey are doing things against 
tbe public interest and the public bealtb ? 

Mr. Chapin. I do not wish to be understood as saying tbat I never 
did inform against any of them. But I do not wish to get into trouble 
witb my neighbors, and tbat is tbe reason other people have, I suppose. 
One of my neighbors has said 1 ougbt to be bung, and I do not want 
them all to think so. 

The Chairman. You have a State inspector whose business it is to 
look after tbe matter, have you not ? 

Mr. Chapin. Yes, sir ; we bave a State inspector. 

Senator George. If a State law cannot be enforced in Massacbusetts, 
bow can a Federal law be enforced ? 

Mr. Chapin. Because tbe goods will then be under cbarge of United 
States officers. 

Senator Jones. But it might be tbat people wbo did not want to get 



128 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Oil ba«l terms with their neighbors would not inform the United States 
officers, either ? 

Mr. Chapin. If it passes out under the hand of the United States 
"with a tax of 5 cents a pound upon it, we will risk it. 

The Chairman. If it is put under the United States law and branded 
and stamped in the factory where it is made, there is no danger of its 
being sold for what it is not ? 

Mr. Chapin. We will try and compete with the goods with a five cents' 
tax. 

Senator George. Then your idea is that the remedy for this evil is 
to have a United States rather than a State law? 

Mr. Chapin. Yes. 

The Chairman. Do you know anything, of your own knowledge, in 
regard to the collection of fat in your city for the manufacture of oleo 
oil? 

Mr. Chapin. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. State in regard to that as briefly as you can. 

Mr. Chapin. Mr. Armour's partner testified yesterday that they used 
but very little kidney fat, nothing but the caul, or something to that 
effect. 

The Chairman. But Mr. Webster has made his statement plain this 
morning. 

Mr. Chapin. The reason of that is because they ship their goods to 
Boston by refrigerator cars. It takes some time for these goods to 
arrive at their destination, and after being received in Boston the goods 
are hung up in refrigerators and kept there until the meat is called rii)e, 
and then it is thrown down on the block and separated into three differ- 
ent parts. A man comes in and wants a pound or two of steak, and it 
is cut down irom the sirloin to the kidney, and that part is left and re- 
mains until there are but 3 or 4 pounds left, and then that is sliced off 
and thrown into a barrel near by. That is allowed to remain there 
twenty-four hours, the kidney fat, which is i>robably ten days after the 
creature was killed and sometimes longer than that. Then the team 
calls around once a day, in hot weather and cold, and gathers that fat 
from what we call the meat-men in the principal markets. The wagon 
stands at the door of the market and the man goes in and gets his basket 
of tallow and throws it into the wagon, and at this season of the year 
there are thousands and hundreds of thousands of flies covering those 
goods during the process of loading that team. It is then carried from 
there to the manufactory, and we do know it to be a fact that these fats 
are gathered in that manner. Cue manufacturer admitted that some- 
times they only called once a week at his i)la('e and collected the fats. 
That would make an average of about two weeks after the creature was 
butchered before the fat was collected. 

Senator Jones. You say that is the fact, and that the fat is used in 
the nianui'acture of this oil! 

Mr. Chapin. Yes. 

Senator Sawyer. How do you know that ; are you in the business "? 

Mr. Chapin. o^o, sir; I am not in the business, but it comes under 
my sui)ervision. We see the teams back up to the establishments, &c. 

Senator Sawyer. Do you regard that information sufBcieutto enable 
you to say that it is worked into this article, or are you guessing at this 
thing ? I do not want any guessing about it. 

Mr. Chapin. We never have followed it up from the time after the 
team has j)icked it up from the establishment. 

Senator Jones. Can you give me the name of a person who uses the 
at in t'hat way f 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 129 

Mr. Chapin. The i)arties I refer to are John Eeardou & Sons, and 
the Clommercial Butter (.-ompauy. 

Senator Jones. They get this stale fat and work it into oleomarga- 
rine, yon say ? 

Mr. Chapin. I have not used the word "stale." 

Senator Jones. Well, then, this fat that has been kept at least ten 
days after the animal was killed, and make it into oleomargarine ? 

Mr. Chapin. Yes, sir. 

Senator George. If it is not stale, what is the matter with it; is 
anything the matter with itf 

Mr. Chapin. 1 liave not said anything about that. 1 have not said 
it was stale. 

Senator George. Was it bad in any way "? 

Mr. Chapin. 1 have not examined it thoroughly to see whether it 
was or not. 

Senator George. You do not know whether it was perfectly good 
fat or not ? 

Mr. Chapin. I do not doubt the fat is sweet. 

Senator George. Sweet and good ? 

Mr. Chapin. I presume so — that is, I could not say whether it was 
or not. 

Senator George. It had not been very long from the steak from 
which it was taken ? 

Mr. Chapin. I could not answer that. 

Senator George. Did it not come off the steak ! 

Mr. Chapin. Yes, but it remained exposed in that way two hours 
afterwards. 

Senator George. But with that exception, it had been there no 
longer than the steak "? 

Mr. Chapin. That is all. 

Senator George. And people ate the steak and it was good ? 

Mr. Chapin. Yes, I presume so. 

Senator George. You cannot say whether this fat was good or bad ? 

Mr. Chapin. I could not. 

Senator Jones. Does this Mr. Reardon make tallow iu his establish- 
ment at all ? 

Mr. Chapin. I think he does. 

Senator Jones. Can you state whether the fat of this character which 
is collected goes into the manufacture of oleomargarine or tallow! 

Mr. Chapin. I could not say ; I never followed the team any farther. 

Senator Jones. Then you do not know anything about it ! 

Mr. Chapin. No, sir. 

The Chairman. You simply know that the teams of these men col- 
lected that fat and took it to his place? 

Mr. Chapin. Yes, sir. 

Senator Sawyer. I do not see why this committee should ask any- 
thing further about it ; he does not know what is done with it. 

The Chairman. That is what the committee wants to know about. 
The statement has been made here repeatedly by experts and manufact- 
urers that no fat can be used in the manufacture of oleomargarine which 
has been out of the dead animal more than twenty-four hours, and that 
it is under no circumstances used. The testimony of Mr. Chapin is sim- 
ply to this effect : That he does know that the wagons of certain oleo- 
margarine manufacturers in Boston collect fat which has been killed ten 
or twelve days, and carry it to their factories ; what they do with it he 
does not know. 

17007 OL 9 



130 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Senator George. And that these same oleomargarine manufacturers 
are tallow manufacturers also. 

The Chairman. There are in all large places tallow manuiactories. 

Senator George, And that the same men whoss wagons get that are 
tallow manufacturers. Is that not so ? 

Mr. Chapin. As to the Commercial Manufacturing Comi)any, I could 
not say wherhei- they manufacture tallow or not; 1 do not know. But 
the other tirm makes soap. I want to say that Keardon & Sons are 
honest men. 

Senator George. The long and short of it is that you do not know 
what becomes of that fat. 

Mr. Chapin. No, sir; not after the teams back up to the establish- 
ment. 

Senator Jones. You testify to the honesty of Reardon & Sons. Do 
you believe they would put a disgusting and filthy article of fat into 
anj thing used lor food ? 

Mr. Chapin. From my knowledge of Reardon & Sons I should say 
they would not. 

Senator Blair. You say there is some bad oleomargarine. How is 
that made ? 

Mr. Chapin. I could not tell you. 

Senator Blair. The testimony of the exj)erts was to the effect that 
itAvas necessarily made of most excellent materials all the way through. 
I would like to know how, under those circumstances, there could be 
bad oleomargarine ? 

Senator Jones. And I would like to have you state whether it is 
made bad or became bad after it was made f 

Mr. Chapin. I know of one instance where we had some from the 
Commercial Butter Company, and it tasted so strong of saleratus that 
we had to send it back. 

Senator Jones. You do not know where that saleratus got in ? 

Mr. Chapin. No, sir; but it was supposed it was put in to clarifj'^ 
the tallow. 

The Chairman. We have had all the facts about that. That will do. 

Colonel Littler is here from Chicago, representing a large dairy in- 
terest in the West, and the committee will hear him. 

Mr. Chapin. I want to add that 1 know nothing against the Com- 
mercial Manufacturing Company' which would lead me to think that 
they would not also make honest goods. 



STATEMENT OF R. M. LITTLER. 

Col. E. M. Littler, secretary of the Chicago Produce Exchange, 
then addressed the committee. 

The Chairman. Please state to the committee your name and posi- 
tion. 

Mr. Littler. My name is li. M. Littler, and I am from Virginia 
originally; a farmer's son, a boy who drove the cows in the pine hills 
of Virginia nearly sixty years ago. When my country called for sol- 
diers to go to Mexico, I shouldered my musket, though but seventeen 
y-ears of age; and when the Government gave me my land warrant, I 
located it in the West and enjoyed the pleasures of the ague and living 
in a sod house, and have remained in that glorious country ever since. 
But although 1 live in the West, I love old Virginia yet. Well, the 
war is over. I know" no South, no North, no West, no East; nothing 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 13t 

but a coininoii country. I am at this time, after having lived upon at 
farm in Iowa for nearly thirty years, the secretary of the Produce Ex- 
change of Chicago, having been honored by the city of Chicago in being, 
chosen to that position. I am now u[)on my third year of service, and 
while other gentlemen may come here as })rofessionals, who have had! 
all the advantages that education and wealth could give, 1 beg that 
you will indulge me by allowing me to give you a few plain facts in &. 
plain way; and as [ am now pretty well on to the jumi>ingoff place irtj 
life, I shall endeavor to tell the truth. 

I almost dread, gentlemen, coming before this committee, because there 
was a gentleman here yesterday, a scientific man, who came and saidi 
that he had read all the literature and all the science; he knew it alU 
You have heard from two or three men who are paid to come here andl 
traduce and villify agriculture. They have come here under the Dome- 
of this Capitol and have dared to make assertions of such a kind tbat it 
would not have astonished me if Columbia, the goddess upon the lH>me, 
had come down and shed tears of blood to think that people couM be^ 
hired to make such statements. 1 have enjoyed the privilege of ibear- 
ing the bark of the prairie-dog and have lived in a sod house,^ aiMl H 
want to sajf to you, gentlemen, that I think in this examination many- 
questions have been put that have no bearing ui)on the case. 1 ams 
addressing .\ou also as a representative of the Xatioual Dairy Associa- 
tion of this country, which represents a product larger than any siugle'. 
product which is growMi. 

I am an Iowa farmer and a brevet Chicago man, and I come here to 
say to you that it does not require elaborate arguments or very keea 
moral perceptions to see that the manufacture and sale of a counterfeit 
article as genuine is highly demoralizing to all in any way engaged inj 
the business. The dealer who sells it for what it is not, and places 
something that is unhealthful in the place of something known to be- 
healthful and desirable, may try to quiet his conscience with the thought 
that somebody else would sell it if he did not, and he might as well 
have the profit as another one. But that is very poor logic, the farmer- 
thinks. Certainly his customers would not be imposed upon if he did 
not impose upon them. But the temptation is too strong, the price of 
the fraudulent article so cheap, that he yields as a matter of necessity^ 
and he soon becomes as hardened and conscienceless in the matter as. 
the worst of his brother dealers. He has thrown down the bars, and 
the devils of dishonesty will pass over in troops until he becomes so> 
conscienceless that he cannot be honest if he would. Soon he ceases 
to care about honesty, and the old superstition of selling one's soul to 
the devil becomes practically verified in his case. 

Said it is, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, tbat the^ 
service of mammon in this world pays better in worldly riches than tbe 
honest i)ursuits of duty in the interests of humanity and the higher moral 
virtues. 

And right here let me say that in the city of Chicago we have sixteen 
firms which manufacture this stuff, where it comes in direct competition 
with the men I represent. Therefore I claim the right, after having 
come 800 miles, not to go home until this matter is presented to your 
consideration fairly and honestly. I have the highest appreciation of 
the dignity of the Senate of the United States ; no one more so. You 
gentlemen occupy that proud position, and we look to you and feel that 
in your hands we are safe, and we only ask you to solve one conundrum, 
and that is this : Where in the name of Heav^eu does any man get the 
right to force upon the community a counterfeit article while they think 



132 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

tbey are getting a genuine one '? Is tbeie anything in any State law, 
national law, or in Holy Writ that wonkl allow a man to make a 
counterfeit i)roduct to compete with an honest one? 

Men can be found, as you have seen here, gentlemen, during the ses- 
sions of this committee, who will do anything tor money — and 1 am only 
sorry that I <li<l not get Professor Chandler to write my si)eech for me 
instead of writing it myself. But he got out of town before I could 
^et to him. He said he had all the literature and all the science, and 
that he knew it all. Professor Babcock, of Boston, and all those other 
distinguished gentlemen have addressed you, but I am nothing but a 
clod-hopper, a crank, and a granger. But, thank God, I come trom an 
lionest father, and the principles he taught me in the old pine hills of 
Virginia stick to me yet. 

1 claim, gentlemen, the right to speak of this. I have grown gray- 
3ieaded on the i)raines of the West; going there from Virginia, with 
nothing but niy knapsack, my discharge from the army, and my land 
warrant, and tilling the soil like all other men, like our great President — 
and I honor him for ir — I found a woman who suited me and I married 
her, and witli true Virginia grit I tried to do my duty, and I did it, as 
eight boys and a girl can testify. [Laughter.] Now, gentlemen, a man 
■who has done that for his country has a right to be heard. Every dol- 
lar I own, gentlemen, I have dug out of the soil of Iowa, as a farmer. 
I havejust gotten my farm in a i)osition where my cows and my chickens 
begin to pay me. For a long while in old Iowa I had a nip and tuck 
race with the sheriff and constable. Sometimes the sherilf was ahead 
and sometimes I was ahead, but as a rule my crops were generally 
harvested before they were out of the ground. But with old sukey, 
with her crumi)led horns and milk, and my delicate wife of 220 pounds, 
I made up my mind that we could furnish people with good butter at 
20 cents a pound, and then the light began to dawn. We had no sooner 
anade a calculation for a seal-skin sacque for the wife and a piano for the 
daughter than Armour & Company commenced making butter that there 
"was not any butter in, and they got to squeezing the life out of lard and 
•cooking up the tallow and putting them into a churn with a little milk- 
man's-milk, and set it revolving, and could turn out a product that they 
■could ]n\t in the New Orleans market at 9^ cents a pound, when I used 
to get 14 cents a pound. They put their goods onto the market under 
a false name; they are making a spurious article, and they are to-day 
foisting it on the consuming public as genuine. They do not sell it to 
the consumer for what it is, and they know it. 

I live in Chicago, where we handle over 90,000,000 pounds of butter 
annually, and 40,000,000 pounds of that is butterine. They do not sell 
ftt to the consumer as butterine. There may be an occasional man who 
pref-ers it, as there are men who will drink 40-cent whisky, who are not 
asfeamexl to own it. But still they will do it. They can get certificates 
•enough in regard to its quality, it they will pay enough for them. But 
they do not sell it under its own name. It is not enough that they sell 
it to the boarding-house keeper for what it is. The making of counter- 
feit money is not more of a fraud than this, for the counterfeiter sells 
it as counterfeit, and knows that the people he sells it to will shove it 
<y& on the people as genuine. The bogus-butter maker does precisely 
the same thing in selling his goods to rascally landlords and shameless 
boarding-house keepers. He knows they will pass them off as genuine 
butter. Then, how is the maker of this "queer" butter any better 
morally than the maker and vendor of "queer" money ? Morally, there 
is no diflference between them; and we farmers hope you will see to it 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 133 

that there shall be a difference, legally, between an honest butter-maker 
and a man who makes a counterfeit article or sells counterfeit butter. 
Both the counterfeiters deal in a bogus article, and both shove it on an 
unsuspecting public, for the purpose of defrauding them and putting: 
money in their own pockets. It matters not that there is some value 
to the bogus butter. It is not wbat it is taken for, and it is not what 
the bnyer pays for, except, of course, the dishonest public caterer, wbo» 
buys it of the maker or dealer with intent to defraud his patrons by 
clandestinely giving them to eat cheap, nasty grease in the place of" 
butter. The dealer who sells to such a customer is on the same level 
as the possessor of counterfeit money who sells to another person a. 
spurious article, knowing it is to be passed as genuine. 

Touch it as you may, geutlemeu, counterfeiters, whether they make 
butter or any other article, are not a whit better than the bogus-butter 
men or counterfeit-batter men, or any name you choose to call them. 
The offense of cheating their fellows in the quality and character of 
their food is the more despicable, reprehensible, and dangerous. It is 
an assault on the public health ; and even here a professor of science, 
undertook to tell me and tell you, to tell this honorable committee, that 
there was no work tlmt would certify to the fact that tape worms exist 
in the fat of animals. 

Now 1 have a little taste for literature myself, and whenever I have 
a chance to read 1 improve it, as I have seen what great men have done 
by reading. I think when the long winters in Iowa come I shall have 
a chance to read, and I may improve myself and get to Congress yet, 
and so I want to get in shape. Now I happened to import a book from 
England. It is a German book. I cannot speak a word of German, 
but my wife, who is a Pennsylvania Dutch woman, can, and we put ia 
our odd times and she translates this great work to me. It is very in- 
teresting. Many jireat men have been educated by their wives, you 
know. She tells me that Dr. Adolph Schmidt Mulheim, of Hamburg, 
saj's that these germs and parasites do exist in the fat, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that these distinguished men from New York, these men 
who claim to ha^e been for sq many years professors, one of them the 
president of the board of health, deny it. I am sorry that he is not 
here now. Professor Chandler, of Columbia College, with a twenty-five 
years' exi)erience, tells you that parasites are only found in the leaa 
and muscular fiber, when this man who is considered authority by 
everybody, and is recognized as such, declares that they do exist in the 
fat, and that they also exist in the kidney fcit. I have here another 
authority, called Fleming's Manual of Science, and he says there are 
three kinds of tape worms which exist. 

But there is a gentleman here who has kindly agreed to take up this 
subject, a scientific man, who knows more about it than I do, and conse- 
quently I will not detain you with going into the tape- worm question. 
I only make this observation, that these gentlemen who preceded me 
day before yesterday misrepresent the truth ; whether they do it know- 
ingly or ignorantly I cannot say. But books in the library in this 
building, and books in the library in the Agricultural Department will 
contradict every assertion they made. 

Now, gentlemen, they say if the people are willing to accept it, why 
havn't they a right to sell it ? All I have to say is, if they think it is 
as good as they say it is, where is the need of any deception ? Why 
do they want to put it in a butter tub and in pound prints, and why do 
they want to bill it as butter, as I have bill-heads to show they do in 
the city of Chicago — the men who come here and boldly say to you that 



134 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

t;hey bill it for what it is. They do not. I have bill-heads on file show- 
ang that it was billed as butter. 

Greutlemen, I am talkiug for luy wife and children. This is a fight 
between 7,.500,OO0 agriculturists and a score and a half of capitalists 
aod manufacturers who would see the world sink if they could get a 
golden canoe to float to heaven in. 1 feel this. It is my bread and 
Gutter; it is my life. It is for my boys, who, thank God, so far have 
liV'Cd without a stain upon their characters, and expect to hold the [)low 
aud wield the scythe in our home in the Northwest. For these reasons 
I appeal to this honorable committee to aid in the passat^e of this bill. 

But these gentlemen say it is a State question; do not bring it to the 
TJuited States authorities. We have tried it as a State question. State 
laws are very much like giving a man an invitation to go and hunt. 
Xoii give him a gun and a cartridge-box, and you may give him a 
liUMilieon, but unless you give him ])owder and shot he don't bring home 
much game. We want a national law to take hold of this thing. Glo- 
rious tem])erance Iowa has passed a law and assessed herself $20,000, 
^nd appointed a commissioner to see to it that the dairy or creamery 
men in our State shall have i>rotection from this imitation butter. The 
State of Illinois has jiassed a law also; they have given the guii and 
-cartridge box, but have given no ammunition, and the law is a dead 
letter. The merchants of Water street laised several thousand dollars 
rfor the purpose, and some of the gentlemen here in this room subscribed 
to that fund. They had a detective that ran up and down the stieets; 
"they found these men; they arrested them, and they were bouml over, 
but then you know if there is anything unceitain in this world it is the 
decision of a jury. Why, they tired us out. They could legislate and 
ibeat us every time. I will tell yon that when men are killing about 90 
per cent, of all the cattle killed in the country, if tliere is any kind of a 
anargin, they can afford to be liberal to their friends. 

If a substitute for butter is good, it will go under its own name. The 
fact that imitation butter is n.ot so put before the pul)lic is ])ioof con- 
'Clusive that they have no faith in it as an honest sulistitute. Hence they 
resort to deception and fraud. These b(»gus butter men are not only 
•dealing in a fraudulent article but the arguments they use are frauds. 
They claim to be making a cheap, pure article for the poor. They say 
they are the i)Oor man's friend — in disguise. They want the i)oor man 
to i)ay a butter i)ricefor their lard and neutral. Why, for heaven sake, 
.-gentlemen, we won't deny the right of any man under the Constitu- 
tioji to eat tar if he can i)ersuade his stomach it is made of molasses ; 
Ihe has that right. But, in heaven's name, give a man the right if he 
nvants to eat butter and lard, to mix it to suit himself. I do not want 
;;vou to mix it for me; let me mix it to suit myself. 

If -A farmer sells a horse as being sound, kind, and true, and he i)roves 
tx> l)e a kicker, the farnur is mulcted in damages to the injured party. 
-If a druggist's clerk, with large experience, puts up a i)rescriittion with- 
out a license he is tine<l. If the honest miller ])uts shorts with his buck- 
"wheat flour and sells it for a i)ure article he is denounced as a fraud. 
Jf a milkman i)uts Potomac water into his milk and he is detected 
^by 'the authorities he is imi)risoned, fined, and ]>uMished. But a few 
"wealthy manufacturers of bogus butter can pat tVom 50 to SO i)er cent. 
«of Jard in my creamery butter, label it with the same brand that is on 
any own tub, and I must not say a word. If I do, I am personal. I 
Ikuow that in the city of Chicago they copy the biands of good sub- 
stantial creameries in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and only 
the day before I left home the Jefferson Creamery, of Iowa, sent to Chi- 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 135 

cago some butter in tubs which was bought and shipped after it was 
mixed, without scratching the brand oft" the tubs, to Minneapolis and 
sold there. It was received, and the man who received it was arrested, 
and he came back on the creamery man, and it was proved that he sold 
it as good butter. 

The Chairman. You mean to say that the tub in which the creamery 
butter came to Chicago was filled with oleomagarine and sent out again ? 

Mr. Littler. Yes, and I have the letter to show it, so that any gen- 
tleman on the opposite side can inform himself about it. The case 
comes up for trial in Minneapolis under the State law. The arrest was 
made by the assistant superintendent of the dairy commission in Min- 
nesota. 

The Chairman. Have you any other information of a similar nature ? 

Mr. Littler. No, sir; I have only the knowledge that I obtain as I 
pass up and down Water street and 8eesn)all tubs of 9 pounds marked 
"Eosebud Creamery, Best Dairy," «&c. They claim that the word "cream- 
ery " and the word "dairy" belong as much to them as to the butter 
men ; that Is what they claim. I think 1 know what I am talking about 
when I say that these men steal the liveiy of Heaven to serve the devil 
in, and ])ut on the market daily nud weekly more of this fraudulent 
comi)ound as daiiy and creameiy butter than is made of genuine butter 
in all the dairy States of the Northwest. 

Now what is the result ujjou myself t My ]>ro])erty has shrunk in 
value because of the manufacture of this article. 1 here are fifteen 
concerns in the city of Chicago which (;an turn out daily /»,0(»0 tubs of 
imitation butter and can sell it from 3 to 6 (;ents a pound less than the 
farmer can possibly produce it to-day. 

Senator Blair. How much in a tub? 

Mr. Littler. From 50 to 00 pounds. 

The Chairman. What knowledge have you as to the retailing of this 
material '? 

Mr. Littler. It is sold in three thousand groceries within 5 miles of 
my office. 

Senator Blair. Are you speaking of the city of Chicago? 

Mr. Littler. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. What do they sell it for ? 

Mr Littler. The groceiyman knows well enough what it is when 
he buys it, but it is the innocent child who runs in and says it wants a 
pound of l)utter who is deceived, and instead of getting 1(5 ounces of 
sometliing giving strength and vigor, they give a material that contains 
2 ounces of butter, ounces of lard, and 8 ounces of neutral, with salt 
and water, of (H>urse, mixed in ; and these men will tell \ou, if they tell 
;sou the truth, that they can nmke this cheaper than the farmer, be- 
cause they manage to get water enough into their product to pay for 
manipulating and working it. 

The Chairman. Have you any knowledge as to what proportion of 
it is sold in the West as oleomargarine ? 

Mr. Littler. I believe that the honest dealers of the city of 
Chicago will tell you that 05 per cent, of all sold to the consumers is 
sold as genuine butter. Why do they sell it ? Simply because they 
can bu3" it at from 10 to 14 cents a pouiul and can cut it at 25 cents. 
We have a grocery on the coiner in our town and they pay their entire 
running ex])enses on the jnofit of l)utterine that is sold, i guess my 
friend Mr. Stern will tell you that that is the truth. They will deliver 
one or two tubs, and if a man does not like it they will exchange it the 
next day. It is given to them fresh and it does look nice. Tallow is 



136 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

a pretty article and will keep, if iced, sixty to uinety days. That is 
refined tallow, and of course it will keep. 

I would just like to say here, gentlemen, in respect to this score and 
a half of butterine makers who are fighting us and fightiugall the agri- 
cnltural interests of the United States, a few words. But first let me 
say to my Southern friends, the Seuators, that I hope they will under- 
stand that the Northwest is not sectional. I believe that Tennessee is 
going to be the finest dairy region in the country. I have been invited 
down there to talk to dairymen, and from what I have seen and heard 
of Central and Eastern Tennessee and parts of Arkansas, and even down 
in Texas, it is all capable of ])rodncing dairy products. I hope these 
Senators will see that the dairy interest of the South issomething that 
should not be overlooked. 

I claim that these gentlemen have caused 13,000,000 cows to depre- 
ciate in value about |lO per head. The gentleuien make great boasts 
of adding $3 to the value of each steer when he is slaughtered and sold. 
But therearel3,000,000 cows, and putting the shrinkage in value at $10 
each we have a loss of $130,000,000. The yearl\ product of butter and 
cheese has depreciated in value, according to my books, about $75,000,- 
000. 

Senator Geokge. Is it a decrease in the quantity, or in the price of 
the article 1 

Mr. Littler. In both. A great many farmers do not laise their 
calves now. A calf is sold when it is only worth $2 instead of keeping 
it for a year when it would be worth $10. Then there is this young 
stock which is about as much more, which makes altogether $250,000,- 
000 of shrinkage in value. And here are tliese families of men, women, 
id children who are willing to deprive themselves of the culture of 
society, who go out on the prairies and live in sod houses, who get up 
at daylight and go to bed at dark with the chickens, and all that kind of 
thing, and yet these gentlemen come here and say to you, " Gentlemen, 
do not give us protection." I am talking not only for the farmers of the 
Northwest, but for the farmers of the whole country. Five hundred 
thousand agricultural laborers are idle, too, in consequence of this thing. 
On the Sioux City Kail road between the town of Manchester and Sioux 
City there are nineteen creameries dismantled because they cannot com- 
pete with the 0^ and 10 cent butter of these gentlemen who take neutral 
land and churn it. 

Senator George. Eight there ; do you propose to suppress it 1 

Mr. Littler. No, sir; bnt we would have you gentlemen regulate 
it so that a man can know what he is buying. 

Senator George. Do you think that would decrease the consumption 
of oleomargarine ? 

Mr. Littler. It would decrease it, certainly. I do not think one 
person in ten would eat it if they could get anything else. That is my 
honest opinion. 

Senator George. You think it would partially suppress the manu- 
facture to expose the character of the article, because people would 
not buy the product ; is that your idea I 

Mr. Littler. Yes, that would suppress it some, but we would like 
to have you tax it with a small tax and compel the manufacturers to 
get a license, or do something to regulate it. It is making us a nation 
of dyspeptics, and as some men say, a nation of tapeworm bearers ; 
that is what I he physicians tell us. I speak, gentlemen, I say, in be- 
half of agriculture and agriculturists, that great source of national 
prosperity. While these persons are growing rich through fraud and 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 137 

deception, we are told tbat the farmers and dairymen have no case ; 
that we must not attempt to obtain an effective national legislation that 
will at least regulate or check, if it does not relieve us of, this great evil. 
I see the danger that threatens ray section of country, and I say, as I 
stand before heaven to-day and under the great Dome of this beautiful 
Capitol of ours, that I do not think any question ever was presented to 
the American Congress on which the weal and woe of this nation so 
greatly depends. I do not excei)t from this remark any question of 
tariff, public policy, or anything else. 

Gentlemen, when the plow rusts in the furrow and the farmer's mort- 
gage is foreclosed, God help America, God help the United States. 
Murray Hill may shine for awhile; New York, with her summer resorts 
and her broadcloth, may get along for awhile, but we, gentlemen, who 
own but one suit of clothes, we men who live and toil upon the prairies, 
we men who suffer and endure everything and have endured everything 
that we might have a country and hav^ a commerce, if we are to be 
crushed by this hideous fraud, then I say, God help America. 

I thank you, gentlemen, for the attention you have given me. If any 
man wants to know what the average price of butter has been for the 
year, here is the report [exhibiting]. I did intend to say something 
about the unfairness of these men who come and feed their cattle on 
the public domain out in the Northwest and never pay a cent for it. But 
they have not got enough. They raise their cattle out on the public 
domain and never pay a cent for it, and then come in and compete with 
Eastern farmers and still are not satisfied. They still want you to pro- 
tect them in making neutral and tallow so that they can compete with 
the farmers of the older States. 

I sent to some of you the other day a circular which explains this 
thing exactly, and I will submit a copy of it as a part of my statement. 

(Mr. Littler then read portions of the circular referred to to the com- 
mittee, and it will be found in full at the conclusion of his oral statement.) 

Senator George. Are you not aware that there has been a general 
and continuous fall in prices for the last five years? 

Mr. Littler. Yes, sir ; 1 understand that. 

Senator George. Do you think the shrinking in value of those prod- 
ucts to which you have alluded has been greater than in other things? 

Mr. Littler. Yes, sir ; and I think Bismarck is partly to blame for it. 
I think if he had not legislated against American meats we might have 
had a better show and better prices. But here is another thing I think 
the farmers ought to understand. These scientific men told you about 
what happened five years ago when they produced their figures. But 
the farmers and their wives and daughters want to know what is going 
on now, and what the Senate of the United States is going to do for 
them now. In 1879 I was honored with a commission to go to Europe 
to attend the International Dairy Convention, and when I got there I 
found exactly how our dairy interests were running. We were told to 
exhibit samples of our butter and cheese, and we did so, and Mr. Thur- 
ber and other gentlemen in New York built up a large export trade, and 
we should have it to-day if it had not been for the adulteration used in 
the manufacture of these goods. Our exports have greatly fallen off 
for that reason. 

Senator Blair. Have you anything to show as to the effect of this 
manufacture upon the amount of production of butter ? 

Mr. Littler. Of course if these men can make a product that can 
be sold to the consumer at from 9 to 14 cents a pound 

Senator Blair. I understand the theory ; but have you any figures 



138 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

to show whether the amount of production has been increasing or di- 
minishing? 

Mr. Littler. Yes; I have. There has been a great decrease. I 
will not take time now to hunt up the figures, but I will submit them 
hereafter to the committee. 

Senator Blair. I wish you wouhl do so. 

Senator Jones. In your statement of the export value of the prod- 
ucts, state separately what each ))rodnct is. 

Mr. Littler. I will do so. I will tell the truth, the wliolr- truth, and 
nothing but the truth about it. I have no ax to grind in this matter, 
and here I want to say, in Justice to myself, that no one pays me a 
nickel to come here, nor has anybody contributed anything towards my 
expenses. I have tnken the necessary money to pay tny expenses out 
of my own hard earnings, and I come here by j)ermission of the body 
of commercial men whom I rei)resent in Chicago. I am fighting for 
my home and my interests, and all 1 ask in regard to these men who 
make this counterfeit article which comes into the market against my 
goods is, that this great Government of ours shall take the fanners 
under its protecting wing, as the States cannot <lo it, and compel them 
to fjut their i)roduct upon the market in its true guise. 

Senator Blair. Let me ask you a question right there. You say you 
do not want a counterfeit article made. What is done in this article in 
its manufacture which makes it a counterfeit f 

Mr. Littler. I am not a chemist, but in the first place you have to 
get at the chenjistry of butter. As a gentleman told you here yester- 
day, and as any other man who has given the matter any consideration 
will tell you, in butter-fat we have oils that are not found in anything 
else but mother's milk. The milk and the butter-fat oils are the first 
and last food of man. The little mewling, i)uling infant in its mother's 
lap is restored to life and vigor by the use of the butter-fat in that milk. 
It is the same with animals. These gentlemen will not deny that there 
are fine, essential oils in the butter-fat that are not in this imitation 
profluct, and they cannot get them there. 

The Chairman. 1 do not think you understood the Senator's ques- 
tion, which was undoubtedly directed towards the matter of coloring. 
This })ro<luct is colored to imitate butter, is it not ? 

Mr. Littler. Yes, it is colored, but I believe coloring is not at all 
objectionable with any class of men. 

Senator George. Is butter colored too? 

Mr. Littler. Yes; butter is colored with annatto and some other 
things. 

Senator George. Is it colored by the dairymen ? 

Mr. Littler. Yes, sir. High class butter is colored with a pure 
color which hurts no one. 

Senator Blair. You say all you want is to be able to distinguish 
the two articles. If the consumer knows what he is consuming, you are 
willing to take your chances in other resi)ects"? 

Mr. Littler. We are not afraid of fair competition. 

Senator Blair. Suppose that oleomargarine was of a different color, 
so that every man by the eye couid tell whether it was oleomargarine or 
butter; would that satisfy you ? 

Mr. Littler. That would satisfy me, individually, if they will only 
get somebody to enforce that law. That is what I want; to have the 
law enforced, and not be a <lead letter. 

Senator Blair. Suj^pose there was such a supervision of the manu- 
facture that every package which left the manufacturer should be of 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 139 

8ome difterent hue from the yellow which seems to belong to butter 
from time immemorial, so that the eye would know at once that it was 
not butter. Would that satisfy you, if iu addition to that you had a 
tax sufiScient to pay the ex])enses of the supervision f 

Mr. Littler. Yes ; I would not ask for anything more. We do not 
want to load our friends down and drive them out of the business. 

Senator Blair. If there was a distinctive color for butter, yellow, 
and oleomargarine had all the other hues of heaven and earth to select 
from, of course that would not interfere with you, because your color is 
yellow. Anything of a yellow tint cannot be oleomargarine if the law 
is carried out. Now, if in aildition to a regulation requiring the manu- 
facturer to introduce some coloring matter — if he puts in anything not 
of a yellow tint — and you have a law which raises revenue enough to 
pay for its administration, a faithful and efficient administration by 
national authority, would that protect the dairy interest"? 

Mr. Littler. It would be satisfactory to many and would be pro- 
tection to the dairj'. But do I understand that the coloring matter used 
must be so distinctive that theie could not be any possible mixing up 
of the two articles ? 

Senator Blair. I do not know that you comprehend me. Here are 
all the hues of nature, except yellow, at the disposal of the oleomarga- 
rine men. They may make their products strawberry color, violet, or 
whatever they choose. It may resemble icecream in color, or they may 
make it in any way that would be attractive to the eye or taste, but 
they must not use yellow, because that is your color. It is substantially 
white when well made iu the first instance, I understand. If it is left 
without any coloring matter then it can be distinguished from butter! 

Mr. Littler. Yes, it can be if there is no white butter; but there is 
a great deal of white butter made. 

Senator Blair. You can color your butter? 

Mr. Littler. Yes; but large quantities of butter are i)utouthe mar- 
ket not colored at all. 

Senator Blair. But if it was colored anything butyeilow you could 
distinguish the two articles ? 

Mr. Littler. I think it would be easier for the manufacturer to color 
his butterine than for the farmer; farms are so isolated. 

Senator Blaiw. Supi)Ose he does color ir, but not yellow? 

Mr. Littler. Yes; pea green, ])ink, black, or anything but yellow. 
They put yellow coloring in because it makes it look like butter, and 
that is an additional means of dece])tion. 

Senator Jones. I will ask a question. If yonisole object in coloring 
butter is to make it of a color so that oleomargarine would not be mis- 
taken for it, how would it suit yon to have a law passed that pure but- 
ter should be colored green and the oleomargarine people could color 
their product anything except green ? 

Mr. Littler. That would be unfair, I think, in this way, because 
yellow is the clover and grass butter (jolor, and belongs to it naturally ; 
the pigment or coloring matter is naturally a straw color at certain sea- 
sons of the year. 

Senator Jones. And at other seasons of the year annatto is used to 
color it so as to make it apj^ear that clover and other grass has been 
used in the butter when it has not. 

Mr. Littler. The object is to make it a little more pleasing to the 
eye. We are using yellow corn and cariots, farmers who are able to 
have barns and stalls, and are endeavoring to color it in that way. 



140 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Senator Jones. Is this a butter color in this tin ? [Indicating a speci- 
men submitted by Armour & Co.] 

Mr. Littler. It is the color of some butter. Some is like that and 
some several shades darker. I thought you were going to ask me if it 
was butter. 

Senator Jones. I understood you could not tell. 

Mr. Littler. I could if 1 had a glass here. 

Senator Jones. But not by an inspection or it! 

Mr. Littler. Ko, sir. 

Senator Jones. If this is the natural color for oleomargarine, would 
there be any impropriety in having that go on the market without any 
coloring, if it was properly labeled ? 

Mr. Littler. Yes, sir ; I think so ; the difference should be seen. 

Senator Jones. If it is properly labeled, I say. 

Mr. Littler. The man who buys it could scratch the mark off. 
What we want is to protect the consumer who buys 3 or 3 pounds at a 
time. That is what we are after. These gentlemen may bill it as but- 
ter! ne. 

Senator Jones. Is this specimen here butter or oleomargarine ' 

Mr. Littler. I could not tell you just now by looking at it. The 
only way we can tell when it is honestly made is to heat it to a temper- 
ature of 135 degrees, and let it settle. [After an inspection of the 
sample.] No, that is not butter. Kobody would ever accuse that of 
being butter. 

Senator Jones. I ask you whether there is any deleterious substance 
in oleomargarine, so far as you know f 

Mr. Littler. Yes, I think there is, if what E have heard is true, and, 
if the chairman will just allow me I will read the evidence of a man 
who says that he worked for one of these factories a year, if the chair- 
man will allow it to go in. He says, " I have worked in the factory" — 
the one he represents — " for a year. The factory uses acids and alka- 
lies in u)aking its butterine." 

Senator Jones. What factory is thatf 

Mr. Littler. It is Armour & Co.'s factorj. 

Senator Jones. You know nothing of the unwholesomeness of these 
products except what you have heard "? 

Mr. Littler. Only what I have heard. I saw a knife once that was 
used in a butterine shop that was eaten up with the acids, but I do not 
know anything about it. 

Senator Jones. Would you consider a low-grade butter unhealthy ■? 

Mr. Littler. I would not consider it unhealthy if sound, but it is 
not palatable. 

Senator Jones. I mean rancid butter. 

Mr. Littler. 1 do not want to eat rancid butter, but I do not think 
it would kill any one if he should eat it. 

Senator Jones. The question is as to its unhealthiness. 

Mr. Littler. I should think to a delicate, sensitive system it would 
be unwholesome. 

The Chairman. What is rancid butter — spoiled butter "? 

Mr. Littler. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. Then it is not fit for market any more than spoiled 
fresh meat would be"? 

Mr. Littler. IsTo, sir. Another thing I desire to state. A gentle- 
man here yesterday said that he gave 80 cents a pound for butter when 
he could buy oleomargarine for 18 cents. I have Ijeen marketing butter 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 141 

regularly for twelve years. I have my prices at home, and I think I 
make pretty good butter, but my butter only averages me 22 cents a 
pound on the average, on the farm or at the depot. At the White 
House Mr. Cleveland gets butter from the Darlington Creamery, sup- 
plied by Oyster & Co., on the avenue, and pays $1 a pound, I 
have no doubt. But that does not settle the market i)rice of butter. 
We are talking about the 98 or 99 i)er cent, average prices While 
there are some dairies that might be able to get 75 cents a pound for 
their product, the average price of the best dairy butter has been in 
Chicago 40 cents a pound. 

Senator Jones Do you say that the best butter is always colored! 

Mr. Littler. I suppose 90 per cent, of it has more or less coloring 
in it. 

Senator Jones. Why is it colored ? 

Mr. Littler. Because it is supposed to look better and to bring a 
higher i>rice. 

The Chairman. Is not yellow the natural color of butter made from 
grass ? 

Mr. Littler. Yes, sir ; and the object of the coloring is to try to 
maintain the natural color of grass butter during the whole year. 

The following is the circular referred to in Mr. Littler's statement: 

To the honorable Seiiate of the United States: 

I notice that the Chicago Livestock Exchange Las adopted a resolntion against 
the passage by your honorable body of the bill to regulate the manufacture and sale 
of butter substitutes, known as the Scott bill, which has juet passed the lower house 
of Congress, and sent a committee to Washington to work against its passage by the 
upper house. The resolution assumes to speak " in the interest of the vast cattle rais- 
ing industry of the land, of equal rights to all, and of the millions of consumeis to 
whom this object of taxation [counterfeit butter] proves a cheap, wholesome, and 
almost indispensable article of food." 

Let us see what right these few C4iicago capitalists have to speak for so vast a mul- 
titude. The '' industry" which they have the effrontery to defend before the honest 
representatives of an honest people, numbering nearly 60,000,000 souls, is based on 
counterfeiting the products of one of the oldest and most important industries of this 
country and fraudulently getting their counterfeit products into consumption. It is 
safe to say that not 1 per cent, of their counterfeit goods has been knowingly bought 
and eaten by the consuming public. Like the couuterfeiters of currency, these coun- 
terfeiters of butter may have sold their manufactures to their jobbing and retail 
agents for what thej' were, but the retailers, boarding-house keepers, el id genus omne, 
have imposed them upon consumers for and in the name of genuine butter. Nobody 
wants to consume their goods. Have they the right to smuggle them down the throats 
of consumers by giving them a false guise and a false name ? 

So much for their assumption to speak for the "millions of consumers," who, so far 
from considering the counterfeit products of the stock-yard gang "an almost indis- 
pensable article of food," shrink from, shun, and abominate them. The wholesorae- 
uess or unwholesomeness of the counterfeits does not enter into the question, which 
is, have a few capitalists the right to counterfeit a leading farm product and fraudu- 
lently pass it off upon the public to the injury of the farmers and the disgust of the 
consumers ? 

Now for the "vast cattle-raising industry of the land" which they assume to speak 
for. Do not dairy stock and the other stock of the farmers belong to the "cattle- 
raising industry of the land?" Do the stock-yard gang speak for these? By no 
means. The owners of the stock in all but a few Northw^estern States and Territories 
are the men against whom the stock-yard gang are arrayed. Let us see how the in- 
terests of all not represented by the gang — assuming, for the sake of the argument, 
that they have authority to speak for the cattlemen per se — compare with those ccwi- 
centrated in the Chicago stock-yards. We will make no estimates, which may be 
misleading, but take the census of 1880 as a basis for comparison. According to that 
the cows in the United States numbered 12,443,120; all other stock 23,481,391. The 
total was 35,924,511 head, one-third of which would be 11,974,837. So over one-third 
of the cattle of the country are cows. Let us see what the stock-yard gang have the 



142 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 



lea&t shadow of claim to represent. We will give them the following Territories and 
States : 



COWB. 



Colorado 28,770 

Dakota 40,572 

Idaho 12,838 

Montana 1 1, 308 

Nebraska 161, 186 

Nevada 13,319 

New Mexico i 12, 955 

Texas i 606,176 

Utah ., 32,768 

Wyoming I 3, 730 

Oregon j 59,549 

Total ! 983,171 



Oxen. 



2,080 

11,418 

737 

936 

7, 234 

765 

16, 432 

90, 502 

3,968 

718 

4, 132 



Other 
cattle. 



315, 989 
88, 825 
71, 292 
160, 143 
590, 129 
158, 137 
137, 314 
3, 387, 927 
58, 680 
273, 625 
352, 561 



138,922 5,594,622 



Here, then, according to this showing, we have scarcely one-quarter 
of the "other cattle" oft he census represented by the stock-yard gang. 
Three-fourths of the "other cattle" are owned by those more or less in- 
terested in dairying as an industry, to say nothing of the millions of 
consumers who want pure dairy goods and have the right to know what 
they eat. 

To further illustrate where the dairy interest lies, and to show that 
those engaged in it have also an interest in "other cattle," we give the 
following from the census of 1880: 



states. 



Virginia 243, 061 

North Carolina .• 232,133 

South Carolina 1 139,881 

Kentucky 301, 882 

Georgia I 315, 073 

Louisiana 126, 464 

Arkansas 259, 407 

Alabama 271, 443 

Florida l 42,174 

West Virginia ! 156, 956 

Tennessee 303, 900 



54, 709 
50, 188 

24, 507 
36, 166 
50, 026 
41, 729 

25, 444 
75, 534 

•16,141 
12, 643 
27, 312 



Other 
cattle. 




Total 2,392,374 I 414,399 



377, 414 
375, 105 
199, 321 
505. 746 
544, 812 
282, 418 
433, 392 
404, 213 
409, 055 
288, 245 
452, 462 



4, 272, 183 



It will be seen from this that eleven Southern States have only 2,392,374 cows (a 
little over one-sixth), and only 4,686,582 of the " other cattle," including oxen, which 
is less than one-fourth. The total number of " other cattle," exclusive of oxen, owned 
by the Territories and Western States engaged in beef-raising as a main industry, aud 
by the eleven Southern States, was only 10,015,185 — considerably less than one-half — 
the balance of "other cattle" and 8,693,341 head of the dairy stock belonging to the 
dairy States proper. So these Northern States have not only a much larger interest 
in dairying than the others, but also a larger interest iu beef cattle. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 



143 



States. 



Wisconsin — 

Illinois 

Iowa 

Indiana 

Kansas 

Micbifian 

Minnesota 

Missouri 

New York 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 



Total 



Grand total . 



Milch cows. 



Working 
; oxen. 1 



478, 374 
895, 923 
854, 187 
494, 944 
418, 633 
384, 578 
275, 545 
661, 405 
, 437, 855 
769,043 
854, 156 



28, 762 

3,246 

2, 506 

3,970 

16, 789 

40, 393 

39, 344 

9, 020 

39, 633 

8, 220 

15, 062 



Other 
cattle. 



622, 005 
1,5:5,812 
1, 755, 343 

864, 846 
1, 015, 935 

466, 669 

347, 161 
1, 410, 507 

862, 233 
1, 084, 977 

861,019 




18, 587, 086 



*Oxen 

Eleven dairy States had in 1880 more than one-half of all the cattle in the United 
States. 

It is claimed that the counterfeit business has added to the value of beef stock. We 
say the market quotations do not justify the claim, while it is an indisputable fact 
that the value of all dairy stock has been very much reduced — it is believed fully 25 
per cent. — while the number of cows in the country has been correspondingiy lessened 
fiom what it would have been had dairymen had only honest and open competition 
to contend with. 

To illustrate the preposterousness of the claim of the stockyard gang that their use 
of lard and tallow in the manufacture of counterfeit butter has added to the value 
of beef cattle and hogs, we give the following prices per 100 pounds live weight, taken 
from the stockyard books: 



Tears. 


Native cattle. 


Range cattle. 


Hogs. 


1882 

1883 

1884 


$4 25 to $9 30 
4 10 to 8 25 
4 10 to 8 00 
3 50 to 6 80 


$3 25 to $0 60 
3 00 to 6 25 
2 65 to 6 25 
2 35 to 5 25 


$5 40 to $9 35 
3 90 to 8 15 
3 80 to 7 75 


1885 


3 10 to 5 35 



We give the range of average prices for the years named. The figures thus far this 
year are certainly no better than they were last. It will be seen that as the counter- 
feit-butter business has increased the prices of both beef cattle and hogs have de- 
clined. But, as a matter of fact, for the information of the cattlemen and all inter- 
ested, not over 10 to 12 per cent, of oleo oil — just enough to give body — is used in the 
manufacture of counterfeit butter, the balance being prepared from lard. The neu- 
tral is so prepared by running the melted raw material into a sulphuric acid bath, to 
remove the smell of the pig-stye and the cattle-yard. Instead of being heated to 150 
degrees, as claimed — a degree far too low to cook it or kill the eggs of parasites — we 
are credibly informed that it is barely melted, rarely running above 115 degrees. 

But, aside from these comMiercial considerations, is the great question of morality 
and justice which is involved, and which no Senator can conscientiously ignore. The 
consuming public have the right to protection against fraud. Men engaged in an 
honest industry and furuishing to the public honest goods are entitled to protection 
against the counterfeit of their goods. Men who engage in counterfeiting should not 
only have their business suppressed, but be punished for the oftense. Men who 
fraudulently put goods on the market, or connive in any way at their sale to consum- 
ers for something which they are not, commit an outrage upon the public, which they 
should not only be restrained from repeating, but for which they should also be pun- 
ished. Legislation to this end, to cover all cases of the future counterfeiting and 
fraudulent sale of butter substitutes, is anxiously and hopefully looked for at the 
hands of your honorable body by a very large majority of the people of the United 
States. 

All the dairy interest, nearly three-quarters of the "other cattle" interest, good 
morals and justice, are against the Chicago stock-yard representation. 

As to the claim of using a large percentage of fine butter : While we are writing 
this circular the leading manufacturer of counterfeit butter in Chicago is making a 



144 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

product iu which not a particle of genuine butter is used. The only claim it has to 
he a dairy product is its brief contact with the milkman's milk in which it is churned. 
This delectable product is sold to the grocers at 9 cents a jiound, and retailed to con- 
snmers at 'JO cents and upwards. 

With this statement of facts, which cannot be gaiusai<l, before him, can any friend 
of agriculture, any believer in honesty and good morals, any lover of justice, for a 
moment deny that national legislation is imperatively called for to suppress the coun- 
terfeiting of butter and the fraudulent sale of the counterfeit to the consumer? 
Respectfully, 

ROBERT M. LITTLER, 
Secreiarii of the National Butter, Cheese, and Egg Association, 

and Secretai-i/ of the loua Butter and Cheese Association. 
Chicago, Jane 9, 1885. 



STATEMENT OF A. M. FULLER. 

Mr. A. M. Fuller, of Meadville, Pa., then addressed the committee. 

1 have the houor to represent the Pennsylvania State Dairymen's 
Association, an organization of which I have been i)resident some six 
years. That organization I will say is supported by the State. I have 
a very few remarks to offer, and they will bear solely upon one point. 
We have, during the past six or eight years, discussed very fully this 
question of oleomargarine. We have endeavored to enact in the State 
of Pennsylvania the best law whicli we could possibly get to govern 
and control the manufacture and sale of bogus butter. I will say that 
two years ago we beld a convention at Harrisburg iu connection with 
the State Agricultural Society over which the governor i)resided, and 
we framed a law at that time following very closely after the New York 
State law. We found, however, that according to the new constitution 
of the State of Pennsylvania, it was not competent for us to institute a 
bureau to carry out the provisions of this law, as they are able to do iu 
New York State and some of the other States; consequently I came be- 
fore you merely to say this, that so far as Pennsylvania is concerned, 
we feel that we are entirely unable to enforce the law whicli we have. 
We feel that the only safety for us and the only certainty in making 
the law operative is to have it proceed from the General Government. 

I do not understand that the farmers and dairymen of Pennsylvania 
ask for protection. We do not ask that. We are willing to compete 
with this product. All that we ask is that the law be enforced. We 
are unable to enforce our law, and in that respect we think we are very 
much iu the position of many of the other States. We believe that the 
General Government can alone enforce thi«i law. Consequently I, on be- 
half of the dairymen of Pennsylvania, ask that you will consider the 
measure which is uow before you favorably. That is all 1 have to say. 

The Chairman. You think, then, that the Government ought, by 
some system, to supervise to a certain extent its manufacture and see 
to it that every package is properly branded and stamped and sold to 
the consumer under its own name? 

Mr. Fuller. That is it; yes, sir. 

The Chairman. Have you read the bill now before the committee! 

Mr. Fuller. I have read a portion of it. 

The Chairman. Do you think that bill, if enacted into a law, would 
secure that result ? 

Mr. Fuller. I think it would. 

Senator Blair. What is your idea in having a tax imposed ! 

Mr. Fuller. 1 presume a tax would be necessary to carry out the 
provisions of the law under the Government. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 145 

Senator Blair. Do you meau to pay the expenses of carrying it out "? 

Mr. Fuller. Yes, vsir. 

Senator Blair. Do you think there should be a tax beyond the 
amount necessary for that purpose ? 

Mr. Fuller. oSTo, sir ; I do not. 

Senator Jones. If this law should be passed do you think it would 
destroy the manufacture of oleomargarine altogether ? 

Mr. Fuller. No, I do not. 

Senator Jones. Do you think it would affect the production in any 
material degree ? 

Mr. Fuller. I think it would lessen the production somewhat. 

Senator Jones. Have you any idea how much ? 

Mr. Fuller. No, sir; I have not. 

Senator Jones. In that law which you say you gentlemen framed a 
year or two ago, did you look toward the suppression of the production 
of oleomargarine and its sale, or were you looking simply toward pro- 
tecting the public against being imposed upon by bogus products un- 
der the name of butter "? 

Mr. Fuller. We were not looking at all toward its suppression, but 
merely to a law covering the sale of it to protect the consumer. 

Senator Jones. The provisions of your law then were addressed 
solely to the protection of the consumer? 

Mr. Fuller. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. And did not in any sense interfere with the produc- 
tion of this article where it was publicly put upon the market for sale? 

Mr. Fuller. No, sir ; I think we felt, as Colonel Littler has said he 
felt in regard to it, that we acknowledged it as a competitor, and all 
we asked was to have it sold for what it was. 

The Chairman. Does your law undertake to prevent its manufacture 
to be sold as imitation butter ? 

Mr. Fuller. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. The same as the New York law ? 

Mr. Fuller. Yes. 

The Chairman. That law went so far, of course, as to attempt to 
prevent its manufacture as imitation, when manufactured with attempt 
to deceive, and to be sold as butter rather than under its genuine title. 

Senator Jones. Have you a copy of the Pennsylvania statute with 
you ? 

Mr. Fuller. No, sir ; I haven't it with me. 

Senator Jones. Can you furnish a copy to the committee ? 

Mr. Fuller. I will do so. 

The CHAIRMA.N. Have you any knowledge as to the sale of this ma- 
terial in your State, any positive knowledge at all? 

Mr. Fuller. I have not. 

The Chairman. You have not given that matter any attention ? 

Mr. Fuller. No, sir. 

The ChairmA-N. You coine, then, simply to represent the dairy in- 
terest, without any knowledge of the commercial interests involved ? 

Mr. Fuller. Yes, sir. If you will allow me to add, I will say, as 
an evidence of the interest that is taken in this matter by Pennsylvania 
dairymen, that more petitions have been sent in from Pennsylvania to 
your honorable body tiiaii from any other State of the Union, feeling, 
as we do, that it falls entirely to this body to give us the relief we hope 
for. 

The Chairman. Mr. Seymour, of New York, would like to be heard. 
17007 OL 10 



146 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 



STATEMENT OF JAMES H. SEYMOUR. 

Mr. James H. Sf.ymour, of New York, then addressed the com- 
mittee. 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: I come from the 
birthplace of oleomargarine in this conntry — the city of New York. 
I am acquainted with the gentleman who introduced it there, who pro- 
cured the Mege patent, and have been familiar with the progress of this 
j)roduct from that day until now. It was never introduced as a product 
on its own merits. 

Senator Jones. What time did they begin to manufacture it in New 
l^ork? 

Mr. Seymour. I think it was about 1877 or 1878, or in that neigh- 
borhood ; I do not remember the exact date. But there was then some 
comi^laint about its being sold as butter, and its not being butter, and 
a question arose as to its wholesomeness. He then procured a certifi- 
cate from two scientific gentlemen, who have appeared before this com- 
mittee. 

Senator Blatr. Do you mean witnesses who have been before this 
committee ? 

Mr. Seymour. Yes; Irefer to Professors Chandler and Morton. He 
produced the article which he wanted aualyzed. They analyzed it with 
the result they have no doubt stated to you, and I know of no other 
test by those parties from that day to the present time. 

Senator Jones. What date was that? 

Mr. Seymour. It was in 1880. That is on record and has gone forth. 
At that time they analyzed the jiroduct of the Commercial Manufactur- 
ing Company, which was the largest company in the United States. It 
employed $500,000 capital, and they proceeded to manufacture what 
they called oleomargarine, they said, from fat. They went along until 
about 1883, I think, and then came in the new product known as the 
Chicago butterine, made from the lard product. The oleomargarine oil 
being more expensive than the hog product, they were driven out of 
business, and that concern is now out of existence, with a large num- 
ber of judgments standing against it for legal fees, &c. But since 1883, 
or from that date, the growth of butterine or bogus butter made from 
various materials, as stated, from neutral lard, and cotton-seed oil, to 
a small extent, and a small amount of oleomargarine oil and sesame oil, 
has been increasing. Those are statements made to me by manufact- 
urers. 

The two chemists. Professors Chandler and Morton, state that oleo- 
margarine is wholesome. The authorities have beeu procured, or the 
history of this thing, by official examination in the State of New Y"ork 
on the product which has been put upon the market from 1884 to the 
present time, taken from the retailers, not knowing who the manufact- 
urer was or knowing anything about who put up the goods originally, 
but taken and given to chemists, and I will give you the names of the 
chemists and what they say in reference to the wholesomeness of these 
goods. Dr. Bartley, of Brooklyn, who is the doctor for the boaid of 
health of Brooklyn ; Stillwell and Gladding", chemists of the Produce 
Exchange, and who have been such for about fourteen years ; Professor 
Waller, of the School of Mines ; Dr. Love, and E. H. Griswokl — these 
gentlemen state from their examination that the wholesomeness of the 
jjroducts which they have analyzed cannot be determined from chemis- 
try. They have gone into this physiologically, in order to determine 



IMITATION DAIRY PEODT CTS. 147 

tliat fact; aud that authority wbiclil have (iited here Professors Chan- 
dler and Morton will not contradict, especially Professor Waller. 

The Chairman. Can you furnish the committee with their statements 
in writing or print *? 

Mr. Seymour. They are contained in the report of the dairy commis- 
sion of the State of IsTew York, for which they did the work. It was all 
done for the dairy commission. 

The Chairman. I think we have a copy of that report given out in 
advance. 

Mr. Seymour. I think you have it. I am greatly surprised at the 
butteriue people in their attempt to draw in the cattlemen. Why, gen- 
tlemen, there is no greater deception on their part than that very thing. 
And then they try to influence the cotton-seed men in their favor. Now, 
that is a mistake for either one of them, and especially for the cattlemen. 
They say it will depreciate the value of a steer from |;> to $4. I will 
furnish you with figures that they cannot dispute, which will show that 
that is false, and also will show that not all the fat so used for oleo- 
margarine oil goes into consum])tiou in this country; more than 75 to 
80 per cent, of it goes abroad, which this bill does not touch. They are 
pulling the wool over the cattlemen's eyes, and you mark it! The 
farmers of the United States who buy their cattle and farms aud pay 
the taxes, will not feel very favorable to the cattlemen coming here to 
defeat this law when they are raising their cattle upon Government 
land. I do not believe the cattlemen will take that position ; I have 
not any idea that they will. i>reither do I believe that the cotton-seed 
oil interest of the South will take sides with the interest whose fraudu- 
lent practices we are trying to- day to stop. 

Gentlemen, you must bear in mind that the men who are engaged in 
the manufacture of this product are not men who are doing it simjily 
for a livelihood. They are some of the richest men in the country, and 
we have had one of their representatives who is here to-day stating 
publicly that they take these goods and color them yellow to make them 
look like June butter. They acknowledge that they do it with the ob- 
ject of deceiving, and what can you expect of a manufacturer who does 
that and carries it through to the consumer ? 

I will not occupy your time but a moment, but I want to speak of the 
commercial aspect of this question ; I want to say what I know. I know 
that every r)erson who is interested in the manufacture of adulterated 
food products, or in the sale of them, is with these gentlemen and 
against this bill. Now, gentlemen, the responsibility rests with this 
committee, and with the Senate of the United States, to say whether 
that deception in these things — these fraudulent practices — are proper 
or not. If that is to be the course of this particular business, every 
dairyman must adulterate his butter in order to cheapen it and to com- 
pete with this product, or sell his farm, and every merchant must sell 
these goods, as they are following the business, on a fraudulent basis. 

I am fighting this business, gentlemen, because of the fraud and de- 
ception in it. I could have made ten times, yes, fifty times, as much 
money out of the business of selling the things that these gentlemen 
have put upon the market in the last five years as I have out of the 
butter business. But I have never yet stooped so low as to do that 
kind of business. I handled their product for about two years when we 
had a law in the State of New York compelling the branding of oleo- 
margarine and the selling of it as oleomargarine. But soon came the 
Chicago butteriue, and they branded it " butteriue," which we had no 
law to cover, and from that day they have not complied with the law in 



148 IMITATION DAIRY PEODUCTS. 

regard to this subject. So that I quit selling it in 1883 or 1884, I know 
the history of this thing from beginning to end. 

We leave the responsibility with yon, to say whether these gentlemen 
are to regulate the code of morals for business practices in the United 
States, or whether business is to be done on a fair and honorable basis. 

The Chairman. You have stated that figures were given to show that 
if this business was stop[)ed absolutely it would reduce the value of fat 
cattle and steers $3 a head. With that statement you take issue. Can 
you give the value of the fat, animal tallow, in the New York market, so 
that we can see what the fact is? 

Mr. Seymour. I have made an investigation within the last two 
weeks concerning the largest tallow dealers in the city of New York, 
who buy tallow all over the United States. When the manufacture of 
oleomargarine commenced, they were selling their best tallow for 9^ 
cents. 

The Chairman. That was when the tallow was made out of the en- 
tire fat. 

Mr. Seymour. Yes ; out of the whole product. When the oleomar- 
garine manufacturers went into the markets of the United States, all 
the large markets, and bought the best material for making their oil, at 
that time American tallow held the markets of the world for its snperior 
quality. When they went in and took out the best of the product and 
left the culls and inferior grades to be exported, they killed our market, 
until to-day we are not exporting any tallow for that reason, and Aus- 
tralia and Russia hold the tallow markets of the world. That is the 
benefit from the production of oleomargarine upon the article of tallow. 

The Chairman. What is the market i)rice of ordinary tallow now, 
that out of which oleomargarine is made"? 

Mr. Seymour. It is from 3 to3i cents, and the best bullocks will fur- 
nish, I am told by men who slaughter them and know about the matter, 
125 pounds of fat. 

The Chairman. Do you mean fat of all kinds? 

Mr. Seymour. Yes, all kinds of fat ; and the poorest bullock will fur 
nish about 40 pounds, none of which can be used for oleomargarine oil. 
Out of the 125 pounds, not over 50 to 55 pounds can be used for oleo- 
margarine oil, and it sells at 4i cents a pound. 

The Chairman. That is, they pay in New York 4^ cents a pound for 
the best part of the fat used for oleo ? 

Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. What does the remainder of it bring ? 

Mr. Seymour. From 3 to 3i cents. It makes very little difference. 
At that rate, 50 pounds to the steer at li cents, will make 75 cents. 
That will make 75 cents on every steer if all the oleomargarine oil was 
consumed of necessity. You ship 75 per cent, and consume one-quarter 
of it here. How nuich does that injure stock-raising ? 

The Chairman. But suppose the oleomargarine portion, the 50 
pounds out of the steer, was put in with the 3 and '6^ cent quality, 
what would be the value of the product then ? 

Mr. Seymour. It would not raise it very much for the purpose it is 
used for, I am informed. 

The Chairman. But going abroad it would run much higher? 

Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir; now we have no foreign market for our tal- 
low, 1 am informed by these gentlemen, because the other markets 
have taken it. 

The Chairman. Because the quality of our tallow has been depre- 
ciated ? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 149 

Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. That was ou accouut of taking only the best quali- 
ties of fat for making oleomargarine. 

Mr. Seymour. Yes ; that is the reason we lost our hold. 

Senator Jones. You understand, then, that the oleomargarine man- 
ufacturers use only the best fat for their products I 

Mr. Seymour. That is what thej' claim, but I do not know what they 
use. 

Senator Jones. You do not know whether they do or not ? 

Mr. Seymour. No, sir. 

The Chairman. You take their figures on that 1 

Mr. Seymour. Yes; I take their statement for what it is worth. 

Senator Jones. You do not agree to the statements that have been 
made that they use refuse and unclean fats for the manufacture of oleo- 
margarine ? 

Mr. Seymour. I have been told by these gentlemen that they make 
different grades of this oil. It has been stated to-day by gentlemen 
from Chicago that they make different grades. 

Senator Jones. Has the petroleum product had any effect on the 
price of tallow "? 

Mr. Seymour. Yes; some effect. 

Senator Jones. Can you state what proportionate effect it has had on 
the tallow market? 

Mr. Seymour. No, sir; I could not. 

Senator Jones. You say you have been familiar with the business of 
selling oleomargarine from the beginning! 

Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. And have known more or less of the condition and 
quality of the products put upon the market? 

Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. What time do you say the butterine manufacture or 
mixture of hog's lard was introduced ? 

Mr. Seymour. It commenced about 1883 or 1884. Before that they 
tried a mixture of lard and butter, but it did not work well ; the lard 
flavor exhibited itself until they found that deodorizing process of 
taking away the lardy flavor and making the neutral which these gen- 
tlemen have told you about. That takes the lardy flavor away, and 
with a small percentage of butter you get only the flavor of the small 
percentage of butter, the other being neutral. 

Senator Jones. As a healthful product, what is the difference between 
this butterine product and the oleomargarine first produced ? 

Mr. Seymour. If I had my choice, I would rather eat pure oleomarga- 
rine than take my chances on butterine. 

Senator Jones. AYhy ? 

Mr. Seymour. Because I do not think chemicals are good to put 
into one's stomach three times a day, and I do not want to eat them. 
The best evidence in regard to it, I think, is that they will not eat it 
themselves when they know what the product is. 

Senator Jones. But I understood you to say awhile ago that you 
considered these things wholesome. 

Mr. Seymour. No, sir; I do not think I said so. I read from a 
chemist's report about them. 

Senator Jones. I understood that the chemist stated that chemistry 
could not disprove they were wholesome, and I uiulerstood you to ex- 
press the opinion that they were not unwholesome. 



150 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Mr. Seymour. No, sir. 

Senator Jones. I will ask you whether yoa consider it a wholesome 
article of food '? 

Mr. Seymour. I would not dare to eat it or give it to my family to 
eat or advise other people to eat it until it is declared to be wholesome 
physiologically. 

The Chairman. You have not any practical knowledge on the sub- 
ject, really, whether it is wholesome or not ; you have never experi- 
mented in that direction ? 

Mr. Seymour. No, sir. 

Senator Jones. Then you have no fixed belief whether it is wholesome 
or not ? 

Mr. Seymour. I believe this, speaking of it commercially, or so far 
as I can know about it; I believe they can make it wholesome and they 
can make it very unwholesome, and I think the competition is where 
the danger comes in in making it unwholesome. 

Senator Jones. Has this been your opinion always in regard to the 
quality of it as a food product ? 

Mr. Seymour. I sold oleomargarine when it was first made, as testi- 
fied to by Professor Chandler and others. 

Senator Jones. You considered it a wholesome article of food at the 
time you engaged in the trade, I suppose 1 

Mr. Seymour. I had the same opinion then that I have now ; I sold 
it for what it was, and I was contributing money all the time to punish 
men who sold it for anything else. All my customers who bought it 
were aware of the fact. 

Senator Jones. You kept your customers fully advised of what you 
sold it for "? 

Mr. SijYMOUR. Yes, sir ; every time. 

Senator Jones. You say you did sell these products when your cus- 
tomers knew what they were getting'? 

Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir ; every time. I never asked them to buy 
them. They said they wanted to try the new product, and I would 
send an order for them, and the manufacturers delivered the goods to 
me in violation of the law then. I had a plate cut in accordance with 
the law in the State of New York regulating the branding in one-inch 
Roman letters. I branded them when they delivered them to me with- 
out having a brand on the top and sides as the law required, and in- 
variably sold them for what they were. 

Senator Jones. Why did you receive goods that were delivered to 
you in violation of law ! 

Mr. Seymour. E requested these parties to put the stamp on them, 
and sometimes they did and sometimes not. 

Senator Jones. It was just an occasional instance, then, where they 
failed to comply with the law 1 

Mr. Seymour. Yes; there were occasionalinstances where they did it. 

Senator Jones. It was not a persistent attemi)t to do anything of 
that sort ? 

Mr. Seymour. Well, if I insisted upon it, or retiuested them to, the^' 
would put on most any brand. They are the most obliging people you 
ever saw. 

The Chairman. You are a wholesale dealer, are you not ? 

Mr. Seymour. Yes ; and have been since 1807. 

The Chairman. You wrote me the other day, June 14, and gave me 
the same figures that you have already stated to the committee in re- 
gard to the value of tallow exported, the proportion found in the bullock 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 151 

and 1 tbink in other respects the figures are the same. With your 
consent, I will put this letter into the record, as it may be shown a little 
plainer there than in the stateiiieut you have just made. 
The letter referred to is as follows : 

[Office of James H. Seymour & Co., commission merchants. Specialties: Butter, cheese, eggs, &c 

159 Chambers street.] 

New York, June 14, 18H6. 
Hon. Warner Miller, 

Chairman Comtiiitlee on Agriculture, United States Senate : 

My Dear Sir : Your lavoi- of Juue 9 came duly to haud. I have carefully investi- 
gated the points you mention, and conclude from the best authority obtainable that 
artificial butter does not contain more than 10 to 15 per cent, oleomargarine oil, and 
I think it is safe to say that at least 8.5 per cent, of the oleomargarine oil produced in 
the United States is exported to foreign countries. 

I am informed by the most reliable and, I think, the largest tallow dealers in this 
city that up to the beginning of the oleomargarine business in this country our Ameri- 
can tallow held the markets of the world lor its superior (luality. The price at that 
time for best tallow was 91 cents. The oleomargarine men went into the tallow 
markets of the United States and selected the best grades, which left the culls or in- 
ferior grades for export. The effect of exporting the poor quality has been to demor- 
alize and ruin the foreign demand for our tallows. Australia and Russia now supply 
the markets which American tallow held heretofore. The want of foreign markets 
for our tallow has reduced the price from 9i cents in 187,5 to 3^ cents in 1885 and 
188(i. 

I have also sought the most reliable and disinterested party in New York as to the 
quantity of tallow taken from a steer or bullock, and find the following result: The 
finest bullock will produce 125 pounds, and the poorest about 40 pounds. About 50 
pounds of the best fat from the best l)ullock can be used for oleomargarine oil at 4^- 
cents per pound, the balance would sell for 3 cents ]>er pound, and the poorer (Quality 
or the finer quality would sell for 3 cents, it makes very little difference the price 
being so low, whether the best quality is taken out or not; thereby, figuring from 
the basis of the finest quality at 1| cents per pound, it makes 75 cents difference per 
head on the finest cattle, while on the poorer grades it has no infiuence whatever; 
therefore their claim that the passage of the bill would reduce the value of cattle 
$3 to $4 per head, the very most that can be figured on their side of the argument is 
75 cents per head on the finest cattle. This is about as near the fact as they ever reach 
it in their arguments. These facts, which I have obtained from thoroughly reliable 
sources, are surprising to me, as they donbtle.ss will be to you. If there are any other 
points that you would like me to look up for you I am at your service any time. 

I hope to appear before your connnittee some day this week, and should like about 
fifteen minutes to present a few points. Wishing you every success with your bill, 
I remain, 

Yours, very truly, 

JAMES H. SEYMOUR. 

Senator Jones. I will ask you why you quit dealing in this article. 

Mr. tSEYMOUE. Because tbey quit obeying the law. 

Senator Jones. I understood you to say just now that you frequently 
received packages in violation of the law while you were engaged iu 
the business. 

Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir; and I branded them, too. We had a law of 
the State of I^ew York, aod I invariabl3' called their attention to it, and 
they knew it. 

Senator Jones. That violation of the law did not drive you out ot 
business. What violation of the law was it that drove you out of the 
business? 

Mr. Seymour. The reason I went out of the business was because it 
got to be so disreputable in selling these goods for what they were not, 
and the business was getting down upon that basis, and then we started 
for our State laws, and soon after that we had the only State prohibi- 
tory law, and the diary comtnission, iu 1884. 

Senator Jones. I understood vou to say a while ago that vou could 



152 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

have made a large amount since 1884 out of these products if you had 
sold them. 

Mr. Seymour. Yes, a great deal more than 1 could out of butter, and 
do as the other gentlemen in the business do. 

Senator Jones. Do you mean to engage in frauds 1 

Mr. Seymour. Yes, if I engaged in selling the goods for butter. 

Senator Jones. Have you a law in New York against selling these 
goods under false pretenses now? 

Mr. Seymour. We have the State dairy law, yes, and the commis- 
sion. 

Senator Jones. Is that law violated or enforced'? 

Mr. Seymour. It is enforced pretty well. In 1884 we had a pro- 
hibitory law, and goods were shipped in from neighboring States direct 
to retailers, so that it was very difidcult for the inspectors to find these 
goods. They would come from Pennsylvania, Illinois, and other States, 
and go direct into the dealer's hands, and he, knoAving this law existed, 
would keep them out of sight of every inspector who would come round; 
and to day they will only sell to those people who come in whom they 
know and the children of people whom they know. A stranger who 
goes in cannot get an ounce of it. 

Senator Jones. Do they sell it for what it is or as butter? 

Mr. Seymour. Ninety-nine per cent, of it is sold for butter. 

Senator Jones. Do you know of an instance in your State within a 
a few months past where a dealer has sold bogus butter for butter'? 

Mr. Seymour. Not of my own personal knowledge. The dairy com- 
mission would know. 

Senator Jones. But you do not know personally of a single instance? 

Mr. Seymour. No, sir. 

Senator Jones. Then you do not know that it is done! 

Mr. Seymour. I know what I read of the evidence taken in the 
courts. 

Senator Jones. Where persons have been indicted? 

Mr. Seymour. Yes. 

Senator Jones. You do not know of any instance except thaf? 

Mr. Seymour. No, sir. 

Senator Jones. Have you any reason to believe that the law is evaded 
and violated any further than by the reading of these pubjic prosecu- 
tions, which have been brought to your attention ? 

Mr. Seymour. No, sir; I have no means of knowing, except what I 
get through that channel. 

The Chairman. Your belief is that 99 per cent, of it is sold for but- 
ter and not for oleomargarine ! 

Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. Is there any sale for it as oleomargarine ! 

Mr. Seymour. Not to my knowledge ; I do not know, except as I 
am told by the retailers, and those wlio are familiar with it. 

Senator Jones. Yet, when you dealt in it you stated you sold a good 
deal to persons who knew what they were buying ? 

Mr. Seymour. I sokl to the retail trade, tlie grocers, but not to the 
consumers. 

Senator Jones. Did you understand that they sold it under false 
pretenses to their customers? 

Mr. Seymour. I never knew that they did. 

Senator Jones. Do you think they sold it honestly to their cus- 
tomers ? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 153 

Mr. Seymour. I think so. 

Senator Jones. Do you not think the same individuals who con- 
sumed butterine knowingly and of their ov/n choice at that time prob- 
ably consume it yet ? 

Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. But you tliink all the other butterine sold except 
this small percentage of one pound in a hundred is sold dishonestly 
and under false pretenses"? 

Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. Can you give any idea of the amount of butterine or 
oleomargarine that you sold w^hile engaged in that business in New 
York ? 

Mr. Seymour. I suppose I sold less than fifty tubs a month; I can- 
not state positively without looking at the figures. 

Senator Jones. What proportion of the amount of butter which you 
sold was oleomargarine f 

Mr. Seymour. Not 1 per cent. 

Senator Jones. But you think that what you did sell was honestly 
sold to the trade, all of that? 

Mr. Seymour. I sold it to them and it is my belief that they sold it 
for what it was. 

Senator Jones. But you do not think other dealers do the same thing ? 

Mr. Seymour. Other wholesale dealers? 

Senator Jones. Yes. 

Mr. Seymour. I have not made that statement. 

Senator Jones. I understood you to say that 99 per cent, of the but- 
terine and oleomargarine was sold under false inetenses. 

Mr. Seymour. By the retailer to the consumer, I said. 

Senator Jones. You think it is fairly sold to the retail dealers by the 
wholesale dealers "? 

Mr. Seymour. I think so, generally. 

Senator Jones. And that it is the retail dealers who are perpetrating 
the fraud ? 

Mr. Seymour. Yes ; that is, to a large extent. 

Senator Jones. You seem to have a firm conviction in regard to that. 
Upon what do you base your opinion 1 

Mr. Seymour. From the best knowledge I can obtain of the busi- 
ness. 

Senator Jones. What knowledge ? 

Mr. Seymour. From retail grocers and their organizations and other 
sources. 

Senator Jones. Did the retail grocers tell you that they perpetrated 
these frauds ? 

Mr. Seymour. I did not go around and ask every grocer about it. 

Senator Jones. But those you did see told you that they were per- 
petrating these frauds ? 

Mr. Seymour. Several have told me that they would have to sell it 
for butter if they sold it at all. 

Senator Jones. Did they tell you that they sold any for butter? 

Mr. Seymour. Yes, certainly they did. 



154 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 



STATEMENT OF S. P. HIBBARD. 

Mr. S. P. HiBBARD, of Boston, then addressed the committee. 

The Chairman. Please state to the committee, as briefly as you can, 
about the collections of fats, and your conclusions and views as to 
the law being enforced in Boston in regard to the sale of oleomargarine 
and whether it is sold for what it is. 

Mr. HiBBARD. I have in my hand a Boston Herald containing an ar- 
ticle published last Monday morning, which seemed to be a very candid 
and clear statement of the question, and a few of us went to the office 
to ascertain who the writer of it was, and found it was Professor Til- 
den, formerly of the Agricultural Department here in Washington, and 
also connected at one time with the Treasury Department in New York. 
He was also the gentleman who discovered arsenic in the bouquet that 
was attempted to be given to Guiteau on the morning that he was exe- 
cuted. I would like to readjust a few lines in this article in regard to 
the matter. Speaking about the manner in which this article was orig- 
inally intended to be made, and speaking of Mege, the Frenchman who 
got out the ])atent, he says : 

He coQteuiplated usino- only pure animal fats, freed, so far as possible, from other 
tissues, and in fresh condition. The jiractice in Fiiany places has been very different, 
and the writer has observed instances^of sickening carelessness, or worse, in the qual- 
ity of materials used. 

And he goes on to give the details. I will not read them because the 
article is here. In another place he quotes Hassell as follows : 

Beef fat is sometimes prepared on a large scale and made up in imitation of butter, 
being known and sold as " butterine." This article is mainly the olein of the fat, 
with only asmall percentage of stearin. When freshly prepared it is sweet and pala- 
table, in some cases it may be a useful, and therefore excusable, substitute for butter, 
but it is to be feared that such a preparation would be used in some cases for the 
adulteration of butter. 

We know this is so to a very great extent from the admissions of par- 
ties on the other side, who say they sell it to creameries, and so on. 

T will now state what I know about the gathering of fats. An oleo- 
margarine manufacturer in Boston has told me that he used only caul 
and kidney fats pure ; that he gathered them from the provision dealers 
every day. The i)rovision dealers use very largely Chicago dressed 
beef, which has been killed eight or ten days, and sometimes two weeks 
before it is used. I do not say but what it is perfectly pure and sweet. 
But when the other side of the house come here and pretend to tell us 
that they cannot use anything but suet and beef fat taken from the 
animal within twenty-four hours after it is killed, I do not think their 
testimony is worth much. 

Several years ago our firm was approached with an ofler to enter into 
a company in Boston with the intention of manufacturing this product, 
and an agreement was entered into as to the amount of capital each one 
should contribute, what we should call our business, and where we 
should locate it, and I asked the man who had charge of it, and who 
was then manufacturing oleomargarine or butterine, where he got his 
suets. He stated there were already two manufactories in Boston which 
had probably all that the provision dealers could furnish, and he said 
that he gathered it from the smaller cities in Maine, Connecticut, and 
Western Massachusetts once a week in cold weather and twice a week 
in hot weather, and was making large quantities of it. I asked him 
what he deodorized it with, and he said with slippery elm bark and 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. * 155 

some harmless acids. Those were the facts that the manufacturer stated 
himself. 

Senator Jones. Who made that statement ? 

Mr. HiBBARD. It was the Standard Butter Company. 

Senator Jones, Who was the individual? 

Mr. HiBBARD. Mr. Cochrane. 

Senator Jones. Was he a manufacturer, do you say ? 

Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. Is he still manufacturing? 

Mr. HiBBARD. No, sir; the organization fell through, and he had no 
capital and ran ot)ly a year or two, and we made up our minds, several 
business men who contemplated going into it, not to go into it. 

Senator Jones. He made a poor class of goods, did he nof? 

Mr. HiBBARD. No, sir; he made as good a quality of goods as is put 
on our market in that business. But he has been in business several 
times and has failed. He is not a business man. 

Senator Jones. Did he have any trouble with his manufactures? 

Mr. HiBBARD. He did as others did at that time. They had patents. 

Senator Jones. Did he have any trouble about any deleterious mixt- 
ures, or handling unhealthy products, do you know, or anything of 
that sort ? 

Mr. HiBBARD. Not that I know of. 

The Chairman. You repeat a simple statement made to you, I under- 
stand. 

Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir; he was in business there for several years. 

Senator Jones. Did he produce a class of goods popular on the mar- 
ket ? 

Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir; he produced an article containing a prepa- 
ration of tallow and cotton-seed oil. It w^as iutended to take the place 
of lard used by bakers, who commended it very highly ; but it was soon 
found that the food made from it became very dry and crumbly, and 
did not retain its freshness as long as that made with pure lard. 
Whether it was attributed to the cotton seed or not, I do not know. 
Many bakers used it and spoke highly of it for awhile, and then gave 
it up. 

Senator Jones. Did he sell Ms product for butteriue or oleomarga- 
rine ? 

Mr. HiBBARD. He did not sell it for butter at all, because it had the 
soft substance and texture of lard ; but he made a great deal of oleo- 
maigarine that he sold as such. 

Senator Jones. Did he sell it as butter? Did he make a counterfeit 
butter out of his oleomargarine and sell it as butter? 

Mr. HiBBARD. He made an imitation butter and sold it as such, as 
imitation butter. Professor Babcock stated here yesterday that he 
thought the law in Boston was properly enforced; that he thought but 
very little was sold in Boston that was not sold for what it was; that 
thousands of peoi)le went to their grocers and ask«^d for this stulf, and 
bought it and paid for it as oleo. Since I was here in April I have been 
over a certain portion of South Boston and the South End, and have 
made inquiries of a great many families, and I think I have found about 
one in a hundred families who will admit they are buying it. Fifty per 
cent, of tlie others think they are buying it as batter, fte told you yes- 
terday that numy of these stores had a sign u^) and a tub marked "iDut- 
terine, at 15 cents a pound." 1 have no doubt of that. But at the other 
end of their ice chest they will have four or five tubs of what they call 
butter, and half of that is butteriue, and marked as butteriue, but it is 



156 * IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

set down in the ice-cliest where it cannot be seen. The other is set up 
where it can be seeu, and parties come in and aslv for oleo, at 15 cents 
a pound, and, as I tell you, I believe that of the persons whom I con- 
versed with not one person in ten wants it or buys it, and yet they do 
buy it out of the other end of the ice-chest, thinking they are getting 
good butter. 

Professor Babcock nuide a statement that he had two detectives en- 
gaged in the business. I think if those two detectives aud himself gave 
their attention even to the insi)ection of milk it would take about all 
their time. He made another statement that he watclied this when it 
came and could usually tell the tubs from their ai)pearance — the most 
absurd and ridiculous statement made before this committee. The Bos- 
ton market desires to have its butter put up in spruce tubs. We have 
a creamery butter made in the Northwest exclusively for ourselves, and 
we send these Vermont spruce tubs there and have our butter packed 
in them, and these Chicago men can uianufacture oleo and do the same, 
and send to Vermont and get spruce tubs and put theui ui) of the same 
sized packages we put up our butter in. I deny that any man can tell 
that stuff when it comes to Boston except by analyzing it, and I do not 
know^ that you can tell then. I have been iu the business twenty years 
of my life, and 1 confess that I cannot tell a great deal of this best but- 
teiine from pure butter. 

Professor Babcock goes on and states that in January- he made 363 
inspections and found 45 parties w^ho were not coraplyiug wdth the law, 
and sent them a notice. I do not know why he did not prosecute 
them. I do not know why the gentleman w^as here. He is employed 
by the city of Boston as our milk inspector to prevent the people be- 
ing imposed upon, and I do not kuow why he is here associated with 
these fraudulent butter-makers. But he is here, aud his testimony has 
been given on that subject, and is all ou that side of the case. He did 
not know Mr. Chapiu aud uiyself yesterday, but he knows all these 
gentlemen iu Boston who are dealing in fraudulent butter. He says 
that in February he made 3(i7 inspections and gave 35 warnings, aud 
that during the tiuie he has occupied that position there have been a 
total number of inspections to the number of 3,371, and 294 warnings 
have been given to people who, as he says, have not complied with the 
Law. But I believe he says he did not prosecute them, but only sent 
them notices. Now, the fact is that the second tin)e the ius])ector goes 
there they know' him, and they are put on their guard. He says one 
of his methods is to send peo])le into these stores to buy the goods, so 
that they can be tested. But after a man has been fined once he is 
very careful. He has a certain class of customers or line of families 
that he can sell to all the time and to w^hom he does sell this fraudu- 
lent stuff. One of the largest manufacturers assailed uie after I got 
home because of some testimouy I gave here in April. I put this 
question to him : "Why do the retailers sell this stuff' for butter f" He 
hesitated a moment and said: "Well, my testinujuy is going to con- 
demn me and my fraternity, but I adunt it as a fact. You have made 
such a hue and cry about this stuff" being unhealthy that they are com- 
pelled to sell it as pure butter in order to sell it at all; they cannot 
sell it in any other way." That is the statement of one of the largest 
manufacturers 'in Boston, made to me. 

Senator Jones, Who is the manufacturer; what is his nauie"? 

Mr. HiBBARD, It is Mr. Bearden ; I think one of the most honorable 
men we have in Boston. I do not think his house would put out a fraud- 
ulent article themselves without its being branded what it is. He is a 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 157 

very bigb-miuded and bonorable man, but be says it is necessary for 
tbem to sell it as butter, because tbere bas been such a hue and cry 
made against it. 

Senator Jones. Yet be is permitting and defending a fraud? 

Mr. HiBBARD. 1 claim ail these things are frauds when they color 
them to look like butter and put the stuff in tubs made just like butter 
tubs, in perfect imitation of butter. 

Senator Jones. Do you think a dairyman is committing a fraud when 
he colors butter at one time of the year to make it look like butter made 
at another time of tbe year ? 

Mr. HiBBARD. That is the natural color. 

Senator Jones. What do j-ou put annotto in it for, if it is the natural 
color? 

Mr. HiBBARD. Annotto is only put in in the winter time. 

Senator Jones. Do .yon tbink it is a fraud for dairymen to put annotto 
into butter to create the impression that the butter is richer? 

Mr. HiBBARD. I would be glad to take the ground that butter should 
not be colored at all. 

Senator Jones. I ask you if you think that is fair and honest? 

Mr. HiBBARD. Well, 90 per cent, of tbe consumers understand that 
winter butter is colored. There was one other point I wished to touch 
upon, and that is as to the freshness of these fats. Professor Babcock 
stated here yesterday that the receipts of imitation butter during the 
year — but I think he must have meant in 1884 — were 9,945,725 pounds, 
and be also stated that there were manufactured by tbe two manufact- 
ories in Boston about 150,000 tubs, at an average of 25 pounds each, 
which would give us something like 3,000,000 pounds of this imitation 
butter. Mr. Webster, from Chicago, and others stated here yesterday 
that they got about 35 i)ouuds of this pure oleo and oleo oil out of an ani- 
mal, which would necessitate a sale in Boston of about 110,000 beeves, 
and I do not believe that one-quarter of that amount is slaughtered in 
Boston. Most of the beef consumed there is Chicago beef. I think tbe 
same thing can be said of New York. 1 do not tbink one-quarter as 
much beef is slaughtered in tbe city of New York as would be required 
for tbe oil mnuufactured. Mr. Rearden, in addition to tbe amount of 
oleomargarine that be manufactures, exports a very large portion of 
his oil and sbips a greater portion to other points. 

Senator Jones. Where do you tbink he gets bis fat ? 

Mr. HiBBARD. From our provision dealers. I tbink they are from 
ten to twenty days old when he gets tbem. 1 aju perfectly willing to 
admit that 1 tbink they are pure and fresh — not fresh, but wholesome. 
But I do not like to have a man come here and say it has to be used 
within iwenty-foitr hours. If that is their testimony, I do not think 
their testimony on other points can be worth much. Colonel Littler 
went into this thing very fully, and 1 indorse every word that man 
said in regard to tbe farming and dairy interest of this country being 
ruined. They do not ask for protection from any honest competition. 
As I have stated before, these manufacturers of oleomargarine take 
out that ])ortion of tbe oil tbat is nearest to butter out of tallow, take 
that portion out of tbe lard whicii comes tbe nearest to it, iiavor it, put 
it into packages, and it was admitted by Mr. Webster after a good deal 
of quibbling yesterday, that they send it out under the brand of a 
creamery, or send it out without any mark on it; and I would like to 
ask any intelligent man what that is for, except to deceive and defraud 
the public? 



158 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Senator Jones. You state that after yoii were here in April and went 
borne, you made some investigation to ascertain the number of people 
using oleomargarine, and I understand you to say that one-half of those 
using it think they are using genuine butter, 

Mr. HiBBAED. About 75 i)er cent, think they are using it. 

Senator George. How did you find that out? 

Mr. HiBBARD. I do not know anything about it. 

Senator George. Then how cau you tell anything about tlie percent- 
age 1 

Mr. HiBBAKD. I go to a man and say to him, " Do you buy oleomar- 
garine"?" He says, "No, sir; I would not have it at all." I say to an- 
other one, " Are you using it ?" and he says, " I do not know, but I am 
afraid T am." 

Seuator Jones. But I want to know how you got the percentage. 

Mr. HiBBARD. That is my estimate. A kxrge portion of these goods 
are sold to manufacturing towns. I think that is where the greatest 
portion is consumed ; there and in South Boston. I want to say one thing 
more in regard to this Eureka and Clover Leaf or Horse Shoe brand. I 
heard of them last winter, several months before we came here. We 
were handling a large quantity of Western dairj^ butter and continually 
coming in competition with this Eureka and Horse Shoe creamery, and 
parties would ask about it and how they could buj^ it, and it was sold 
very largely. I venture to say that that stuff was sold on our mar- 
ket at the rate of 500 to 600 tubs a week for several months before it 
was detected, and, then, I am pretty positive it was not detected until 
the statement was made here by Mr. Ghapin in April ; there were no 
prosecutions until after that. 

Senator Jones. What do you base that statement upon ? 

Mr. HiBBARD. Either that the inspector was thoroughly ignorant or 
did not want to prosecute. 

Seuator Jones. I say, what do you base theopiuion on that that was 
sold before"? 

Mr. HiBBARD. People told me that they were selling it. 

Senator Jones. Did they tell you how muchf 

Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir. I supposed it was pure butter all the time, 
and wondered how they could sell it so cheap. It did not occur to me 
that a house of the standing of Fairbanks & Co., of Chicago, would do 
that kind of business. 

Senator Jones. Did they sell it to the jobbers as butter "? 

Mr. HiBBARD. They sold it to the jobbers as butter and as oleo both. 
In some cases we knew nothing about this, but we knew that hundreds 
of tubs were put on the market as butter. 

Senator Jones. These parties did not deceive theiii customers ? 

Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, the most of them. I understand they branded a 
great deal of it. 

Senator Blair. Branded it what ? 

Mr. HiBBARD. Oleo and butteriue, and whatever was asked. 

Seuator Jones. Were these parties prosecuted ? 

Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir, after we went home from here, and were fined 
$500, but I have no doubt they have made thousands of dollai's out of 
it. There are concerns who were doing a limited business a few years 
ago, and they are to-day wealthy, and the suspicion is they are contin- 
ually selling this stuff for butter. 

Senator Jones. Who has those suspicions "? 

Mr. HiBBARD. I have them. 

Senator Jones. Do the customers of those people have them '? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 159 

Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. Tlie people who deal with them have them? 

Mr. HiBBAiiD. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. Why do they not go to honest dealers? 

Mr. HiBBARD. Because they are buying it a little less and they make 
more money on it. 

Senator Jones. They are willing to take the chances, then, for the 
diflerence in price ? 

Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. Are you a farmer? 

Mr. HiBBARD. I farmed it until I was twenty-five years old, and since 
then I have been in the butter business in Boston. The question has 
been asked many times, if I knew or had reason to believe that the law 
was being violated in regard to the sale of this article why did we not 
complain. You must know enough of human nature to know that a 
man can make himself very unpopular by doing such things, and it does 
not pay any man to complain of his neighbors, even if he believes they 
are selling oleomargarine, and that the law is not being thoroughly iu- 
forced. Only once in the last five years has the inspector come into our 
place, and the last one who came there went down to the butter cellar 
and asked me where our oleomargarine was. I said to him that we did 
not sell it. He said he was the inspector, and turned around and walked 
out. I claim that the man who will sell oleomargarine for butter, know- 
ing what it is, will lie about it if necessary. Now, assume that we are 
selling it for butter, and that inspector comes in and asks where the but- 
terine is, and we tell him we do not sell it, and he turns around and goes 
out, what good does it do ? 

Senator Jones. Perhaps your reputation as business men had some- 
thing to do with that •? 

Mr. HiBBARD. I should hope it might. There is another point I de- 
sire to touch upon, and that is this : The receipts in Boston in May, 
1885, were 9,603 packages ot imitation butter, called oleomargarine, and 
the receipts in May, 1886, were 17,577 packages, an increase of nearly 
50 per cent. 1 ask you, in all candor, if this thing goes on five or ten 
years longer, where the whole dairy interest of the country will be ? 
The whole Northwest will be grown up to bushes, for they cannot com- 
pete with fraud. In April, 1885, the receipts were 12,213 packages, and 
in April, 1886, 18,245 packages. 

The statement was made here yesterday that about 9,000,000 pounds 
of this stuff' was received in Boston, and about 24,000,000 pounds of 
butter was received. But the admission was made by the inspector 
that the two manufactories in Boston manufactured about 3,000,000 
pounds, which, added to the 9,000,000 pounds received, makes 12,000,000 
pounds of oleomargarine or butterine and only 24,000,000 pouuds of 
butter. That shows that one-half of the receipts in the city of Boston, 
including what is made there, is of this imitation stuff'. And 1 tell you, 
gentlemen, you cannot find, outside of the boarding-houses, restaurants, 
and hotels, but very few people who buy this stuff and know what thej^ 
are buying. I see here to-day a gentleman from Boston whom I under- 
stand retails this imitation butter, and I shall put a great deal of confi- 
dence in his statement, and 1 do not think he can tell you that a very 
large portion of his people buy that stuff", ami I believe that every j)ound 
he sells he sells for what it is. 

Senator Jones. You said that a proposition was made to your firm 
to engage in the manufacture of this article. When was that *? 

Mr. HiBBARD. It was, I should say, four years ago, perhaps. 



160 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Senator Jones. An agreement was made to go into the business, but 
you did not go into it; what was the reason yon did not f 

Mr. HiBBAED. When the product first came out, in 1879 or 1880, 
we began dealing- in it and kept it for sale for six months. I do not 
claim to be any more honest than any other man, but when three- 
quarters of the retail trade would come and say they wanted more of 
that oleomargarine, and would say they were selling it for butter, I 
could not stand it, and quit it. 

Senator Jones. In the wholesale trade, not the retail trade ? 

Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir; and that is one of the reasons, and the 
great reason, why we did not go into the manufacture of this stuff. 

Senator Jones. What year do you say that proposition was made 
to you I 

Mr. HiBBAED. I think it was in 1883 or 1884; perhaps Mr. Ohapin 
can tell you when the Standard Butter Company started. 

Mr. Chapin. I think it was previous to that. 

Senator Jones. At that time you entertained the proposition and 
for a time made an incipient organization for the purpose of going into 
the manufacture of this article ? 

Mr. HiBBAED. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. Then you did not consider it deleterious or unwhole- 
some 1 

Mr. HiBBAED. No, sir; we did not at that time ; but the fact that it 
was deleterious or unwholesome has not been with me the great reason 
why I have not handled the stuff, but the reason has been because of 
the tremendous frauds perpetrated by the retailer on his customers. 

Senator Jones. Then the point you think to be reached by legislation 
is to protect the consumers against being deceived in the matter "? 

Mr. HiBBAED. Not only to have the consumer protected, but to have 
the farmer protected as well. I would have the farmers protected 
against the fraud as well as the consumers. 

Senator Jones. If the manufacture could be conducted in such away 
that the contents of every tub would be known, and nobody would be 
deceived in regard to it, would not that meet the purpose you have in 
view*? 

Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir; that would meet the purpose, but I think 
this tax of 5 cents a pound will not injure them at all, and it will raise 
the ])rice nearer the price of butter, and people can use it if they want 
to. I think it is a sad state of affairs when scientific men come here 
and say that oleomargarine is as good as butter, and as the poor man 
wants yellow grease on his bread it would be unfair and unjust to color 
it anything else. It does not help the poor man at all. It is iu the 
interest of the rich man who manufactures it. 

Senator Jones. Do you think a high grade of butter colored green, 
for instance, would be sold readily ? 

Mr. HiBBAUD. No, sir; because it is not the natural color of it. 

Senator Jones. Do you think it would be a popular batter f 

Mr. HiBBAED. No, sir ; because it is not a natural color for it. I think 
the fraud should have its natural color left to it, which is white, if they 
want it. But I do hope that the Senate will not make any amendment 
to this bill which will send it back to the House and so defeat it for this 
year. 

Senator Jones. A large percentage of the butter is colored, is it 
not? 

Mr. HiBBAED. I do not think more than 50 per cent, of it is col- 
ored during the whole year. I think Colonel Littler stated it too high. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 161 

In the winter time it is necessary to color it unless carrots and yellow 
corn are fed. 

I have as much money invested in beef on the plaius as I have in my 
business. My friend, Mr. Reardeu, says to me, "If you j?et this bill 
throup:h Cougress, it will take three or four dollars a head from your 
cattle." One of our largest butter men, who has just been West, tells 
me that he knows of one farm where they have sixty cows, where they 
only milk one cow, and he says they can make more money raising beef 
than in making butter. I tell all these cattlemen that if this bill does 
pass and this stuff is sold on its merits, that the farmer will know where 
he stands on the butter question ; that he will get better prices for his 
butter, and it will attract people to go into the dairy business, and in 
that way it will help the beef interest. I am as much interested in that 
as I am in butter. 



STATEMENT OF W. P. RICHARDSON. 

Mr. W. P. RiCHARDSO^, of Goshen, Orange County, New York, 
said : 

When I appeared before the committee on a previous occasion I took 
up tliis question in its bearing or effect upon the crude milk industry 
of Orange County and other counties engaged in the sale of milk only. 
There were some points I did noc touch upon at that tim^,, which I shall 
be glad to present to your attention now. I spoke then of the depre- 
ciation of property in the farming communities supplying milk to New 
York, from the fact that the butter counties lying farther back, owing 
to the depression of their prices from the manufacture and sale of oleo 
and butterine, had turned the flood of their product upon the New York 
market and broken down our prices. I now wish to call your attention 
to the simple fact of the depreciation of our lands, brought about by 
this same business. 

There are in the districts supplying New York City in New York 
State about 0,000,000 acres of land. Taking the difference in prices, or 
rather owing to the fact that the price has changed or been depressed 
by the sale of oleomargarine, or the effect that it has on the butter coun- 
ties and their turning their product on our market, it has depreciated, 
at a fair estimate, every acre of that land at least $10 an acre. I might 
say that in Orange County the depreciation has been $20 an acre and 
not exaggerate the matter. But taking it through the entire districts 
I think that $10 an acre is a fair average. At that rate these 6,000,000 
acres of land have depreciated in value $60,000,000, taking that theory 
alone. 

Then, on the other hand, take the depreciation in the value of milch 
cows since this oleomargarine was placed upon the market, and from 
the very same reasons we find that the depreciation has been at least 
$20 per cow. There are in that district about 400,000 cows, making an 
additional depreciation of $8,000,000. 

1 offer these facts merely to show the immensity of them. If we take 
simply the State of New York, with its 241.000 farms and over 23,000,000 
acres of land, and carry out this same estimate throughout the State 
(and I believe that it would be the same in every part of the State), we 
have a depreciation in value of land in the State of New York alone of 
about $230,000,000. The value of the farm products in the State of 
New York, according to the census of 1880, was $178,000,000 and the 
number of persons engaged in agriculture 351,000. 
17007 OL 11 



162 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

A statement has beeu made here, I think by Mr. Webster, that the 
enhanced value of beef cattle, from the fact that a portion of the carcass 
was used for the manufacture of oleomargarine, was about $3 per head. 
I wish to call the attention of the committee at this moment to the fact 
that taking it in our own State, taking- it in the Middle Staters, and in 
the Eastern and Western States, wherever dairying- is carried on, there 
is a depreciation in the value of the beef cow, and that is where the 
farmer, as a last resort, must get his income from when he fails to get it 
from his milk or butter. That depreciation has been from $10 to $20 
per head, without any doubt. In the section of the State which J rep- 
resent it has been fully $20 per head. So that we have had a deprecia- 
tion in our lands of at least $10 per acre, a depreciiition in the value of 
our milch cows of at least $20 per head, and a depreciation in the value 
of beef cows after they are through with milking of at least $20 per head 
more. 

I have an interest, as Mr. Hibbard has said he has, also in the cattle 
business of the West, and as to the statement made that there has been 
an enhanced value given to the beef-cattle of the West, all I can say is 
I fail to find it. I know that in the section where I am interested there 
has been a depreciation within three years in the value of beef-cattle of 
from $8 to $10 per head. I agree fully with what Mr. Hibbard has said 
that if this law was passed, and this production of butterine or oleo was 
regulated to an extent that would allow the farmer to get not an ex- 
orbitant price for his butter, but a fair price for it, he would let the 
raising of beef-cattle go and give his entire attention to dairying, and 
the raising of cattle in the West and Southwest would be improved, and 
an enhanced value would be obtained from the beef raised there. 

The Chairman. Eight there let me ask you a question. Suppose the 
depreciation you have described goes on in the dairying districts of this 
country until it is substantially broken down, what must the farmer do 
with his cowsf Is he going to turn them into beef, or is there any 
other way to get rid of them '? 

Mr. EiCHARDSON. In the dairy sections, where the farmer is engaged 
in the production of butter, this would be the residt: Nature has pro- 
vided that some cows shall give milk, while others are best utilized for 
beef purposes. When a cow begins to milk you cannot stop her. You 
have either to go on and put what you feed her on the rib or in the 
pail, and, as a result, there is no other recourse left to the farmer — ^— 

The Chairman. The result would be the turning of the entire dairy 
districts of this country into fat-cattle j)roducing districts, would it 
not? 

Mr. Richardson. Yes, sir ; it would have that tendency. 

Senator Jones. Do you think that all this depreciation in the value 
of land and cattle comes from the oleomargarine manufacture ? 

Mr. Richardson. Ino, sir; I do not think so. But I think I have 
left a sufficient margin in the figures to cover the effect of the general 
business depression of the country. I think the statement I have made 
is sufficiently within the limit. I might say here a word in reply to Mr. 
Webster's statement. Mr. Webster stated that they could get a certain 
proportion of oil from the steer, and they must then find a market for 
the balance of the beef. I want to say to Mr. Webster and these gentle- 
men that they have found that market, but it has been at the cost of 
the interests of every farmer who has a milch cow on his farm. That 
same beef has been thrown upon the markets, and from the very mo- 
ment that the Chicago beef entered into competition with our cow beef, 
our prices — it was not the result of several j^ears, but it came within 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 163 

two or three months of that time — were depressed from $10 to $15 a 
head. 

Senator Jones. You regard cheap beef, then, as a sort of calamity? 

Mr. Richardson. No, I do not, if that remark means that I take the 
ground that this cheap beef being thrown on the market is a calamity 
to the poor man. But I do not believe the poor man ever obtains one 
penny benefit from it any more than he obtains a benefit from the cheap- 
ness in the production of oleo when the retail dealer sells it to him for 
the same price as pure butter. I do not think that the price of beef to 
the consumer has been reduced in anything like the proportion or per- 
centage that the price has been reduced of the cost of production. 

Senator Jones. I did not get the effect of your remark as to how much 
this depreciation comes from the manufacture of oleo. 

Mr. Richardson. I said it would not be easy to get at the deprecia- 
tion in the value of beef cows from the manufacture of oleo, taking Mr. 
Webster's statement that the balance of the carcass had to find a market, 
because I remember distinctly the difference I obtained in the price of 
my beef cows the moment the Chicago beef people located their beef 
establishment in our neighborhood. I think it reduced the price im- 
mediately $10 or $15 a head. Our butchers went there and bought beef 
for so much less than they could get it from us that it stopped the sale 
and reduced prices immediately. 

Senator Jones. You mean they sold them beef cheaper than they 
could buy it from you'^ 

Mr. Richardson. They sold it cheaper to the dealer than the dealer 
had been paying us for that same beef. In the New England and in the 
Middle States and in the Western States until you strike the Missouri 
River, and perhaps even west of that, the effect of the sale and manu- 
facture of these goods has been the depreciation of the value of every- 
thing that the farmer sells, as well as the value of the products of the 
dairy farm. 

STATEMENT OF LAWRENCE J. CALLANAN. 

Mr. Lawrence J. Callanan, of New York City, then addressed the 
committee : 

I represent the retail grocers. I shall detain you only a few minutes 
in the remarks I desire to make. I appear before you to-day as a busi- 
ness man, not to oppose the manufacture of oleo or imitation butter, 
for I think it can be made in such a way and of such materials as to 
make it a healthy substitute for butter. I am here to ask you to report 
a biil which will place its manufacture under restrictions, and to im- 
pose a tax which will, in part, at least, restore to the tax-payers some 
of the money out of which they are defrauded by its sale to them as 
butter at the price of genuine butter. 

The fraud commences in its manufacture. It is made to imitate, as 
closely as possible, genuine butter in color, texture, and flavor, for the 
simple reason that the manufacturer knows that as oleo or butterine it 
could not be sold. 

1 think I am keeping within the bounds of truth when I assert that 
at least 95 per cent, of it is sold for butter, and could not be sold as 
oleo or butterine. A short time since a stand was rented in Jeffer- 
son Market, in the city of New York, to sell it as oleo or butterine. 
After a brief career it has been closed ; the cause, no demand. I know 



164 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

that the same lot of it has been marked and sold at 20, 25, 30, 35, and 
38 cents per pound, from the same lot of tubs. 

A lady went into a laroe store to buy butter. She asked the price of 
the best butter they had. The clerk told her it was 30 cents a pound. 
She said "it cannot be butter, it must be oleo, as my husband told me 
that the best butter was 38 cents a pound at wholesale," and she left 
without buying. The clerk reported the fact to his employer, who im- 
mediately took the hint, marked up the price, and actually sold the 
same lot, which he had been offering at 30 cents a pound, at from 35 to 
42 cents a pound. How can a retailer who sells genuine butter at a 
profit of 5 cents per pound, compete with a man who sells oleomarga- 
rine and sells it for pure butter ? The gentlemen who have been stat- 
ing that they know a great many people who formerly used butter are 
now using butteriue, 1 think would have trouble in producing such per- 
sons before this committee ; at least I have not seen any of them who 
said they ate it since I have been here, though I have not been here all 
the time during this hearing. 

The Chairman. The manufacturers state that they eat it sometimes 
and sometimes use it for cooking. 

Mr. Oallanan. Yes ; I heard it stated that it was used for cooking 
by a certain person, but it was also stated that he put butter on his 
table for his own use. He would not like to eat it without cooking it, 
I suppose. 

Now, the retailers of New York, and, 1 think, of the country, do not 
want to prohibit the manufacture of oleomargarine or butterine ; they 
simply want the trade regulated in such a way that it must be sold tor 
what it is. It is a plain, simple question. 

The gentleman who very eloquently discanted on the farming inter- 
est I Colonel Littler] omitted one statement that I think he ought to 
have made. He said the use of these articles was making us a nation 
of dyspeptics. I claim, in addition to that^ that the manufacture and 
sale of oleomargarine fraudulently is making us a nation of rogues as 
well as dyspeptics. A man who will sell oleomargarine for butter and 
charge the price of genuine butter for it, and do it knowingly, is no 
better than a rogue, I do not care who he is. 

We have a law in the State of New l^ork that we have been trying 
to enforce for a good while, and I notice that in place of helping us to 
enforce that law the gentlemen who manufacture oleomargarine have 
all been trying to put as much opposition in our way as they could, in 
regard to testing the matter in the courts. If they had taken this 
l^roduct and put it on its own merits, and when they sold it, sold it as 
oleomargarine, and kept it properly manufactured and branded, I have 
no doubt they would be selling a good deal of it now; but under the 
present circumstances I do not think that they can sell it, because there 
has been a good deal of antipathy raised against it. 

I think that all retail grocers ask is simply that a law may be en- 
acted to compel manufacturers of oleomargarine to manufacture it 
under the supervision of the United States Government. We do not 
seem to be able to have the State laws enforced as thoroughly as they 
should be. When the United States has taxed other articles, the law 
has been enforced and properly carried out, and I think if the Senate 
passes this bill, and the law is enforced by the United States officials, 
so that oleomargarine and butteriue are sold for what they are, there 
will be no complaint from the grocers and farmers in relation to that 
matter. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 165 

The Chairman. The New York law is directed towards preventing 
this material from being- sold for butter, and compelling- it to be sold 
for what it is. You say that the opposition to the enforcement of this 
law comes mainly from the manufacturers 1 

Mr. Oallanan. Yes, sir ; at the time of the arrest of some parties 
awhile ago, they were going- bail for them, and an association in Brook- 
lyn gave security to pay the costs for carrying the question up to the 
courts to test the law. 

The Chairman. That hardly agrees with their statement that they 
always want it sold for what it is ■? 

Mr. Callanan. It certainly does not. 

The Chairman. Did a number of the retail grocers organize an as- 
sociation and sign an agreement some time ago not to deal in these 
goods ? 

Mr. Callanan. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. How many of the grocers signed that agreement? 

Mr. Callanan. I could not tell yon how many, but a great many of 
them did. The association is composed principally of the German gro- 
cers. 

The Chairman. All the grocers in the city do not belong to that as- 
sociation ? 

Mr. Callanan. No, sir ; not all of them. 

The Chairman. In your opinion how is it usually sold to the consumer 
by the retail dealer ; so that the consumer knows what it is or as but- 
ter ? 

Mr. Callanan. It is sold unquestionably as butter. 

The Chairman. That is your ojnnion as a retail dealer ? 

Mr. Callanan. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. I would like to know how you would protect a man 
who eats it? 

Mr. Callanan. I would protect him by either coloring the butter or 
having- it marked in such a distinctive way that he would be able to rec- 
ognize it. 

Senator Blair. Which, the butter or the oleomargarine ? 

Mr. Callanan. The oleomargarine and butterine. 

Senator Blair. Is there any test that you can think of besides that 
of color that would protect the man who eats it? 

Mr. Callanan. I am not enough of a chemist to be able to say. 

Senator Blair. But can you think of anything? The man who eats 
it is not a chemist either. How am I going to know what I am eating ? 
Do you know of any test but color? 

Mr. Callanan. I do not know of any other. 

Senator Blair. Have you ever heard any other test suggested which 
would protect the man who has to eat it three times a day, and in a 
hurry at that? 

Mr. Callanan. I have not. 

Senator Blair. Do you think that the test of color would protect 
him? 

Mr. Callanan. Yes ; I think it would. 

Senator Blair. And you cannot think of anything else that would ? 

Mr. Callanan. I cannot. 

Senator Blair. Have j'ou ever heard anybody suggest anything else 
that would? 

Mr. Callanan. No, sir ; I have not. 

Senator Blair. Then what is a law good for that does not contain 
that feature ? 



166 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Mr. Callanan. I do not think it would be. I will tell you this, that 
if this law is passed, that will compel the manufacturers to make it 
under the United States laws, under the supervision of the Government, 
and to mark it in the way required, with a license attached to it as the 
law requires, I think that would go a great part of the way in con- 
trolling it. 

Senator Blair. But made in that way, it would all look like real but- 
ter and cost only half as much as butter. How can I tell what it is ? 
The better it is made the more likely I am to be deceived, if the color 
is the same. 

Mr. Callanan. If it is made under the supervision of the Govern- 
ment it can be more easily traced. 

Senator Blair. But can I stop and go through with a chemical ex- 
periment every time I want to eat a meal ? 

Mr. Callanan. You will not be asked to. If this law is enforced, I 
will guarantee that within five blocks of me no man will be asked to do 
that, to find out whether it is butter or not. 

The Chairman. You mean by that it would not be soldf 

Mr. Callanan. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. Do you mean that it will not be made? 

Mr. Callanan. ]So, sir; it will be made, but 

Senator Blair. All this evidence shows that the best oleomargarine 
can be made at a cost of not over one-half the cost of butter, and if it is 
made with the same color as butter it is the more likely to deceive, and 
it is less in the power of the consumer to detect it. Now, unless the 
consumers can see a difference in the color, how do all these measures 
tend to protect the consumer against the imitation butter ? 

Mr. Callanan. The law as it stands now will not do it. You get it 
from any manufacturer now, and you will find it is made under no super- 
vision except his own. 

Senator Blair. You propose, then, that he shall manufacture it so 
that it shall be absolutely good oleomargarine? 

Mr. Callanan. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. But all the testimony shows that the better oleomar- 
garine it is, the more it is like butter, and you put in a color like butter 
to make it still more so. 

Mr. Callanan. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. Then it is all the more difficult for me to tell whether 
I am eating oleomargarine or butter by reason of that requirement. 

Mr. Callanan. It will not be more difficult for the reason that the 
manufacturer would be under supervision of the Government in making 
it. 

Senator Blair. The efi'ect of that would be to see that he makes 
good oleomargarine ? 

Mr. Callanan. Yes ; to see that he does make good oleomargarine. 
Not only the manfacturer but the retail dealer is compelled to take out 
a license under the bill. 

Senator Blair. But how is the farmer to get any protection, or how 
is the consumer of the butter to be protected ? 

Mr, Callanan. The farmer will only get 5 cents a pound protection, 
and that is not enough. 

Senator Blair. Do you think it is right to tax the men who eat an 
honest, healthy food in this country for the benefit of any one class ? 

Mr. Callanan. I am not here to advocate that. 

Senator Blair. But that is what you do advocate in efifect. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 167 

Mr. Calt>anan. I am here to distinctly and plainly disavow anything 
of the kind. I am here to advocate the selling of oleomargarine for 
what it is, and to advocate this law, simply because under the existing 
laws we cannot get that done. We cannot get any protection at all. I 
am here to advocate some protection. 

Senator Blair. Do you not misconceive what hurts you ? It is not 
that oleomargarine is Ijad which hurts you, but it is that it is taken to 
be butter, and therefore the man who consumes it pays twice what he 
ought to for it, and the man who makes it can ])ut it just low enough to 
ruin true butter. 

Mr. Oallanan. (Jur principal cause of complaint is that oleomarga- 
rine is sold for butter at butter prices. 

The Chairman. You think if the consumer knew what he was buy- 
ing- 



Mr. Callanan. That he would not buy it at all. 

The Chairman. Or if he did he would get it cheaper ! 

Mr. Callanan. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. If this testimony we have heard is true, that it is a 
healthy food, and just as soon as people can get rid of these matters of 
sentiment and taste, learn that it is healthy food, and it is just the color 
of butter, they will go to eating it? 

Mr. Callanan. Y^ou heard my statement that if they had started in 
and taken it as a healthy food, and put it right straight down all the 
time for what it is and said "it is as healthy as any butter you can have, 
but we sell it to you as oleomargarine and not as butter," they would 
be selling plenty of it to-day, I believe. 

Senator Blair. I agree with you; I think so too. 

Mr. Callanan. But the way they have done has created a prejudice 
against it which is so instilled in the minds of the people that it will 
take a decade to remove it, so that they will eat it. 



STATEMENT OF W. S. TRUESDELL. 

Mr. W. S. Truesdell, of Saint Louis, vice-president of the Mississippi 
Valley Dairy and Creamery Association, then addressed the committee: 

Mr. Chairman and Senators, I was so suddenly called to your pres- 
ence that I came prepared with no speech, and shall just simply make 
a statement containing a few facts that have come within my knowl- 
edge as vice-president of the Mississippi Valley Dairy and Creamery 
Association, representing the Northwestern States and the States of 
the Mississippi Valley, and as secretary of the local Butter and Cheese 
Dealers' Association, of the city of Saint Louis, Mo., occupying which 
positions I have naturally given these matters some attention, and have 
been quite directly connected with their investigation and prosecution 
during the past year. 

Having been absent during the presentation of the case by gentlemen 
from the other side, I am, of course, without foundation for answer to 
any arguments which may have been advanced, as I am not familiar 
with them. But it seems to me, from what I have heard this morning, 
that one point especially has been presented to your honorable body in 
a false light, and that is, regarding the article most complained of and 
chiefly involved in the action we ask at the hands of your committee. 

The scientific gentlemen who htive presented before you their testi- 
mony as to the healthfulness of the product under consideration, have 
told you that samples of oleomargarine investigated by them as pre- 



168 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

sented by the mauufacturer were absolutely healthful. They have no 
doubt told the truth. But I want to say to you, as a man who has 
handled butter for twenty years, and a bitter enemy of oleomargarine 
in its i:>resent guise, that I am not here to deny the healthfulness of 
oleomargarine. But I do say to you, gentlemen, that it is unfair to 
manufacture a sample article for investigation rather than to present in 
such investigation the actual commercial article that is consumed day 
by day in the markets of the country. 

I want to say to you further that the question of oleomargarine cuts 
but a limited figure in the manufactured product that we are competing 
with in the United States. Oleomargarine is an article for export, and 
if these gentlemen will tell you the truth, as no doubt they will, they 
will tell you that not 5 per cent, or 1 per cent, of oleomargarine as an 
article of food is marketed and consumed in the United States. They 
manufacture an article of oleo oil which, as an oil, is exported, and 
they put a certain proportion of oleo oil in the butterine compound; 
but the article of oleomargarine itself, under the Mege system, and ex- 
amined by these chemists, is not an article of present construction, 
has not been for the past two or three years, and you cannot find a tub 
of it on sale in the markets anywhere to-day. 

We admit that oleomargarine is healthful, and if these gentlemen 
will confine themselves to the manufacture of oleomargarine alone there 
would be no question about the healthfulness of it. But I do not ad- 
mit that the butterine and suine compounds which are now manufact- 
ured for consumption in the United States aie healthful, and we ask 
you to legislate for the people of the United States and not for the 
people of Great Britain or Germany. These articles are manufactured 
of a dilferent material, require a different process of manufacture, and 
in their manufacture chemicals are used that were not used and are not 
found in the samples that these gentlemen analyzed and examined. 

Now I do say that in the process of manufacture at present that 
while it can be made, and perhaps is made, the better quality of it, ab- 
solutely harmless, by reason of the competition already encountered by 
the original manufacturers, they have been compelled to so reduce the 
cost of manufacture and necessarily to cheapen the cost of the originaj 
ingredients in the compound manufactured, that they have been com- 
pelled to use impure materials, and in the use of impure materials have 
been comjielled to use injurious chemicals to destroy- the impurity and 
to prevent its discovery. 

I want you honorable gentlemen to keep that one fact before your 
minds when you give proper weight to these certificates as to healthful- 
ness: that the certificates were absolutely based on an article that is 
not consumed in the United States, and consequently has no bearing 
whatever on your judgment in your decision as to whether it is health- 
ful or not. I do not think that that question should have much bear- 
ing on your decision in the case any way. 

As has been well stated, we come before you gentlemen to complain 
of a fraud, and we ask at your hands simi>ly ])rotection against that 
fraud. I am not here as an advocate of a lO-cent tax or even of a 5- 
cent tax upon the manufactured ])roduct, as these gentleman make it 
to day. 1 say I do not care wnetlier the tax be 10 cents or 2 cents; 
and if in your wisdom you can discover a process by which the ma- 
chinery of the United States can be put into force without the imposi- 
tion of any tax, I am pei'fectly satisfied, if you will give us a law that 
will stamp the thing for wliat it is, in(le])endent of any tax. 

I say to you that the people ot the agricultural sections of this coun- 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 169 

try, the farmers of the United States, do not come to ask a protective 
tarift' against the manufacture of oleomargarine. They simply ask that 
the article shall be placed where these gentlemen tell you they are will- 
ing to place it as an article of consumption and commercial value in the 
United States. J understand that assertion has been made. I want to 
speak of my own knowledge regarding the correctness and honesty of 
such an assertion as that. They say, '^ We are perfectly willing to come 
into an absolutely honest and open competition with butter; it is not 
the tax we complain about so much." But 1 tell you, gentlemen, if 
you strip the bill of the tax you will tiud the opposition just as strong 
ou the part of these gentlemen. The trouble is the effort to strip the 
mask from the counterfeit article and place it before the consumer for 
what it is. 1 know this. 

In the grate of Missouri we have a law absolutely prohibitory. It 
was a mistaken policy in securing its enactment. It is a law which ab- 
solutely prohibits, under severe penalties, the manufacture or sale of 
any oleaginous substance made in imitation of butter, and not made 
from the pure product of milk or cream. We have been striving for three 
years past to enforce that law, but we have been utterly unable to secure 
its enforcement ; and it is a fact, gentlemen, that in the hope of improv- 
ing our position we went before our legislature last winter with a law 
framed after the manner of the New York State law, with this distinc- 
tion : that learning that we could expect the passage of no law which 
involved the exjienditure of a dollar of the money of our State, we pro- 
vided in that law that a tax uniformly upon the good and the pure, and 
upon every package of butter received in the State of Missouri should 
be levied, and from that the expenses of the commissioner and his as- 
sistant should be paid. They sim])ly required in that act that the goods 
should be branded, and that. the brand under penalty should nut be re- 
moved. In other words, we did the best we could to hold its identity 
until it came to the consumer. 

What is the result ? Some of these very gentlemen who are here be- 
fore you today have contributed to a fund of $5,000 now being raised 
in the city of Saint Louis to defeat a law placing oleomargarine and but- 
terine upon tbeir merits as a ]»ure, honest, fair competitor of butter, and 
to hold in enforcement the strict i)rohibitory law that we now have. 
Why ? Because that cannot be enforced, and under it they can continue 
to seil their goods as exact counterfeits. We have made a great many 
prosecutions this winter. We have absolutely proved before our court 
possession and sale, as butter, of goods that a careful chemical analysis 
proved to have only from 4 per cent, of butter to 30 per cent, of butter. 
We have actually analyzed goods that contained 4 per cent, only of 
butter — " the i)oor man's friend." These goods were not sold at 20 cents, 
very cheap, to the consumer. The wholesaler paid 20 cents for it and 
the consumer 25 or 30, and got 4 ])er cent, of butter, some oleo, and 
some lard. He could have bought the lard and made his own mixture 
cheaper. 

In my judgment the necessity of this uniform law we ask at your 
hands is this : That in the State of New York, if my memory does not 
prove me false, you have had some thirteen different enactments or at- 
tempts to regulate and control the manufacture and sale of these goods : 
and while they have been skilfully drawn, and while they have been 
faithfully executed so far as the officers were able to do it, they have 
been utterly inoperative. That has been the experience in every State 
of the Union where, under a State law, we have 'attempted to make 
these men sell their goods for what they were. We come to you and 



170 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

ask for this national legislation simply because the States have failed 
to regulate it in their way, because we believe it to be utterly imprac- 
ticable for them to do it for one reason, and because we believe it a 
duty that our national legislature should protect the brawn and muscle 
of this country, the men who have contributed so much towards its 
greatness and grandeur. 

I want to say to you, gentlemen, as a man of twenty years' experi- 
ence in the butter business, and one who has given this matter careful 
thought and study, that the statement which has been made before you 
that the people cry for this article and want it, that they crave it be- 
cause it is so nice and so good and so cheap, is not borne out by the 
facts. The two largest retailers of butter in Saint Louis, who retail on 
an average over $2,000 worth each per month, have told me emphatic- 
ally, in answer to the direct question, that in all their business experi- 
ence since the introduction of oleomargarine and butterine in Saint 
Louis they have not had one single solitary consumer of butter come 
into their stores and ask for it. Tliese are facts, gentlemen.' That tells 
the story as to how badly people want it when they know what they 
are asking for. 

I say to you as a man engaged in commercial jiursuits and trying to 
make an honest living, that if it be true that the people do want the 
goods, if it be true that the goods are healthy, give us this law regu- 
lating their sale, so that we honest men can put them into our stores and 
sell them as we sell butter, cheese, or anything else, and I will as quickly 
place it on sale in my store as any man who is or has been before you. 
But I will not place it on sale until I can show it and say to customers 
who come into my store to buy it, "T/iereis the oleomargarine, and there 
is the butter." We want you gentlemen simply not to aftbrd the farmer 
unfair, unjust protection ; give him that which is his due ; he asks noth- 
ing more. Surely he is entitled to that — the man who, by the brawn and 
muscle of his good honest arm, for years has dug from the soil of these 
Northern States the grandest monuments to commercial prosperity that 
this country has ever witnessed or that the statistics of this country 
have ever recorded. Show me any other product of the country, if you 
can, that has equaled in grandeur the product of the dairy States. 
What would these gentlemen do 'l They would have you burj^ that grand 
effort and that grand product beneath a monument erected to their own 
dishonesty and to their own fraud. It is simi)ly, gentlemen, a question 
of the protection of the many honest men of the country as against the 
unfair and dishonest practices of the few. 

If these gentlemen are honest in their statement that they have no 
objection to placing their goods upon the market as a fair competitor to 
butter, and if all they want is open, honest, fair competition, why is it 
that in my State, in New York State, and in every State of the Union 
where dairy laws have been passed, these very gentlemen are the men 
who are advocating against them? These men are the ver^- men who 
combat attempted measures to regulate the sale of the goods. Why is 
it? That is a question that I cannot answer in my own mind satisfac- 
torily. If they are honest in their statements that all they want is fair 
competition, why are they objecting to this bill ? 

In regard to the question of the honorable Senator, directed to one 
or two other gentlemen here who addressed the committee, as to whether 
this bill in its operation would aftbrd the protection that we seek, I will 
say this : I think it would ; it would at least to a satisfactory extent. 
There are offenders against all laws, from the first offender against 
wise Divine law down to the present time, and no laws have been 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 171 

enacted, human or Divine, which there have not been breaches of, and 
that will be the case to the end of time. But I believe that by the regu- 
lation that this act provides, by the safeguards thrown around the 
manufacture and sale of this product, the identity of the article will be 
established, and so continued and fixed that it cannot be removed until 
it comes before the consumer. That is all we want; nothing more. 
If a man wants butterine, if he wants oleomargarine in preference to 
butter, by all means let him have it. We simply want, gentlemen, that 
you shall give us a law which will enable him to take his choice, know- 
ing that he is having his choice and is not being imposed upou. 

Senator Blair. Allow me right there to ask you this question : As- 
sume the enactment of the law and its honest administration, and that 
you and I are at a hotel together, and you have no more technical 
knowledge of the subject than I have. I may be paying $6 a day for 
my board at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York or fifty cents a day 
for my board at some other hotel, as the case may be, or I am boarding 
at a restaurant, we will suppose, or boarding-house, where the most of 
it is consumed, in addition to that consumed in the manufacturing vil- 
lages and cities of the country. Now will you tell me how I may know 
whether I am buying and eating butter or oleomargarine ? 

Mr. Truesdell. Have you any means of knowing in regard to the 
cigar you smoke, whether the proper tax upon it has been paid or not ? 

Senator Blair. I might tell whether it was a good cigar or not, if I 
was a judge of cigars. But you all tell us, on both sides, that to the 
uninstructed taste it is impossible to detect the differeiue practically 
between good butter and good oleomargarine. Now liave you not in 
your answer admitted that the consumer who foots all t.ic bills has no 
protection under this act ? 

Mr. Truesdell. I tbink he has. I do not think he has perfect protec- 
tion, nor that any law could give him that. If a law was enacted re- 
quiring them to color the goods black, that law would be evaded. 

Senator Blair. You propose to put every manufacturer of this arti- 
cle in this country under the supervision of this law, and you propose 
to examine the materials of the manufactured product and pursue it 
to its market wherever it is consumed. There is a coloring matter in 
it as a part of its original manufacture. You supervise that as well 
as everything else. How is it, then, that you cannot give, if your law 
should require it, a distinctive color or hue to oleomargarine which would 
at once show, all through, until it falls under my eye as a consumer at 
a boarding-house, what it was ? 

Mr. Truesdell. I see no objection to any such proposition. It would 
rather add to the enforcement of the law. 

Senator Blair. I ask you how I am to get protectioi. unless it be by 
some test addressed to the eye? 

Mr. Truesdell. You cannot possibly get absolute protection any 
more than you can get protection under the operation of the present 
laws regulating the manufacture and sale of liquors and cigars. Those 
laws are in the main enforced, but in some cases they are evaded ; and 
no matter how stringent a law is regarding the manufacture and sale 
of oleomargarine and other products, that law will be measurably 
evaded. 

Senator Bla;r. Do you know of any law regulating the manufacture 
and use of compounds put into intoxicating liquors ? 

Mr. Truesdell. No, sir. 

Senator Blair. You propose to do that with oleomargarine. Y'"ou 
propose to have a law which shall regulate the actual structure and con- 



172 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

strnction of the manufactured article itself, and you provide by this bill 
for the protection of everybody except the man who has to pay the bill 
in the end. 

Mr, Truesdell. My answer to that would be that if that law is en- 
acted and the provisions of the law are enforced, if a man were to be 
deceived he would receive no special harm ; but if the manufacture was 
kept under such strict control, in accordance with that idea, he would 
not be deceived. 

Senator Blair. But who is the man who is harmed by this bogus 
counterfeit product ; is it not the man who pays the bills in the end! 

Mr. Truesdell. It is the consumer, of course. 

Senator Blair. No other human being is harmed under the existing 
state of things. A few honest men are damaged a little in their con- 
sciences, but they contrive to have somebody else carry on the business, 
and the consumer is entirely without protection. Now you come here 
and ask for legislation which shall protect these intermediate parties 
and save the conscience of the honest producers and middlemen ; that 
is all right. But it seems to me that you leave out of account the in- 
terest of the comparatively intelligent ordinary citizen who buys and 
eats the product, and who is himself the real victim of the fraud. 

Mr. Truesdell. We think that the penalties attached to the law as 
now drafted would deter the retailer from imposing upon the consumer. 

Senator Blair. But the trouble with all laws is that we cauriot en- 
force them, and you all say that the man who knows that oleomargarine 
is tendered to him will not touch it, or the majority of them will not. 
Therefore if you can make it patent to the man whose market you are 
after, the consumer, if you can make it patent to him that he is deal- 
ing in oleomargarine on the one hand and butter on the other, you have 
rectiiied the whole thing. 

Mr. Truesdell. Possibly I can answer your suggestion by saying 
that so far as I am personally concerned, if you will amend that act so 
that oleomargarine shall be colored jjink you will meet my views. 

Senator Blair. Well, suppose we say they may color it anything 
but yellow, and let butter have its natural color ? 

Mr. Truesdell. I have no objection to that. 

Senator Blair. I do not like to be obtrusive with the thought; I do 
not care anything about this legislation except to accorai)lish honest 
results ; but I do not think the farmers have any right to call on the 
country at large to protect them as against honest healthy food. I was 
born on a farm and know the struggles of farmers. 1 do not under- 
stand you claim anything of the kind? 

Mr. Truesdell." I do not. 

Senator Blair. You only want us to put an actual test, which will 
enable the consumer to know what he is eating. 

Mr. Truesdell. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. Is there any other suggestion, except the one of color, 
addressed to the eye, that you would suggest? 

Mr. Truesdell. There is not, and I do not think that would be ab- 
solutely eflective. 

Senator Blair. Of course not. There would be some blind men and 
some other lalse aiticle put upon the market. But I do not see how 
you can get much, if any, piotection unless you do thjit. 

Mr. Truesdell. I think the provisions of the present law, with pen- 
a Ites attached, would be sutticient. 

Senator Blair. J know you are apprehensive that if this bill goes 
ba to the House with an amendment of the Senate there will be de- 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 173 

lay. But you had better have a law worth something even if you have 
to wait for it. 

Mr. Teuesdell. I am satisfied in my own mind that the provisions 
of that law are sufficiently stringent now, not to afford absolute pro- 
tection, but to afford sufficient protection at least to give the farmer as 
much protection as he needs until the people determine, at all events, 
as between the excellency of the two products, whether the new dis- 
covery is superior to the original discovery or creation of Divine Provi- 
dence. 

Senator Blair. How are they going to determine that question when 
they cannot tell them apart"? 

Mr. Truesdell. They can put it under its true name as an experi- 
ment. 

Senator Blair. They cannot put oleomargarine by the side of every 
platefull of butter '? 

Mr. Truesdell. No, but I should put it into my store, and I sup- 
pose these other gentlemen would. 

Senator Blair. It will go to the same men as butter, just as it does 
now. 

Mr. Truesdell. The difficulty now is that the goods leave the hands 
of the manufacturer so absolutely like unto butter in all respects that 
there is not the least safeguard for the protection of the retailer or con- 
sumer. The packages are exactly alike, the color is exactly the same, 
the style of the package uniform, and there is no stamp or brand indi- 
cating what it is. It is simply a blank dollar upon which the counter- 
feiter places the stamp when it comes into his hands. 

Senator Blair. But with all the enactments and i)rovisions of that 
law, the article will eventually reach the consumer as it does now. 

Mr. Truesdell. Not if the provisions of the law requiring the stamp 
to be put on at the manufactory are carried out, and the penalty for re- 
moving it stands. 

The Chairman. Is there any gentleman from Chicago here who wants 
to be heard on this question ? I understood there were three gentle- 
men from the cattle-yards of Chicago who wanted to be heard. 

Mr. William J. Campbell. Yes, sir; Mr. Washburn, Mr. Coy, and 
Mr. Wagner desire to be heard. 



STATEMENT OF IRUS COY. 

Mr. IRUS COY, of Chicago, one of the committee representing the 
Chicago Live Stock Exchange, then addressed the committee. 

I am sent here as one of the committee from the Chicago Live Stock 
Exchange to appear before you, and state some reasons why we think 
the bill under contemplation should not become a law. And in order 
that we might not weary your patience or repeat anything we have to 
say, we agreed that Mr. Washburn, who is chairman of that committee, 
should make the statement here of statistics with regard to live stock 
and other matters, acd Mr. Wagnershould alsotakeone branch of the sub- 
ject, and between us it was agreed upon that I should call attention more 
particularly to some of the arguments that have been made before you, 
and show, if I could, that the reasons given here were not well taken, 
and would not answer for the purpose for which they were presented. 

In the outset I wish to say that I, like some of these gentlemen who 
have spoken to you this morning, was born on a farm in New York, 
worked on a farm until I was of age, and that my brothers, five of them, 



174 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

are farmers; that my sympathy is entirely with the farmers of this 
country, and I would not say anything here upon this question that 
could unnecessarily hurt the feelings of any man engaged in that or any 
other honest calling. 

Mr. Washburn will state to you more fully, as he is prepared upon 
that subject, the relation the Chicago Live Stock Exchange has to cer- 
tain classes and interests throughout the length of this country, and the 
amount of money that is invested, and so iorth. Therefore I will not 
touch upon that part of the question. But 1 consider that this question 
before us at this time is one of the most important questions probably 
that has come before Congress or will come before it for a long term of 
years, if we give credit to these people who have come here who manu- 
facture oleomargarine, and if we are willing to admit that they are 
honest. Some of those who have come here from Chicago I have been 
acquainted with for a long term of years, and I believe they are as 
strictly honest, upright men as are engaged in any business, and I be- 
lieve the statements that they make here as to the ingredients contained 
in oleomargarine and butterine are strictly true. 

I know there has been a great deal said here by people who surmise 
or say that they believe there are acids or poisonous substances put in, 
but I take it for granted that these men have stated the facts here to 
you gentlemen, and if those substances that they say are used in oleo- 
margarine and butterine are the only ingredients contained, and you 
determine that those ingredients are wholesome and healthful, that they 
are not injurious to the people who consume them, then its seems tome 
that this law in its operation and effect would be unjust, and a calamity 
if it goes into effect. 

We are told here that you cannot tell the difference in the taste and 
looks of this oleomargarine from butter. They tell us, too, upon the 
other side, that chemists, when they analyze this product, are not able 
to tell the difference. But they still infer that there are some deleter- 
ious ingredients in it, and say they can only be tested by use and by a 
physiological test. 

Is it not a fact that beef fat and the fat from pork, that lard and tal- 
low, have been used and tested physiologically for thousands of years'? 
They are articles of food which have been used on the tables of the most 
educated and refined people in the world for thousands of years. No 
one claims that they are unwholesome in themselves. Now, if these 
articles are manufactured from these wholesome properties, if they are 
not deleterious or injurious to the public health, then it seems to me 
that a law of this kind that requires the manufacturer to pay a license, 
and the wholesale dealer to pay a license, and the retail dealer to pay a 
license and then compels a tax upon the article claiming it necessary 
for a revenue when no revenue is necessary, when it is admitted that 
the present revenue is a burden and is a temptation to dishonesty and 
crime — that a law that would encumber the manufacture of a whole- 
some article of food in this country with such oppression is unjust, and 
I say it is the opening wedge to legislation that would ruin the country. 

I would say here that I am opposed to the selling of oleomargarine 
or butterine ibr butter. I have nothing to say in justification of any 
man who will sell oleomargarine or butterine for butter, or for any man 
who would sell half cotton cloth for woolen cloth, or commit any 
fraud upon the purchasers of those articles. But I do not believe it is 
possible for Congress to frame any law which will make men honest. 
We cannot make men honest by law. This thing resolves itself down 
just to this, from the arguments I have heard here : That the manufact- 



jIMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 175 

iirer sells this as butteriue or oleomargarine ; that the wholesale dealer 
buys this in every instance knowing it to be oleomargarine or butterine, 
but that it is the retail dealer who imposes upon his customer. 

We are liable to be imposed upon in every other branch of business 
and in all the transactions of life. We have to trust to the honor ol 
the men with whom we deal to a great extent in all branches of busi- 
ness. If I were dealing with a groceryman in whom 1 had not confi 
dence enough to think that he would not init oleomargariue or butterine 
on me for butter, 1 would quit dealing with him in an instant. They 
may do it. But when you undertake to encumber a business which is 
legitimate in itself with these unnecessary restraints and encumbrances, 
especially in business like this where there has been a clamor raised 
throughout the country that there is something wrong in it, that there 
is something deleterious in it, and that the people who manufacture it 
are trying to introduce it throughout the country, and you require the 
wholesale dealer to pay a license, as you presci ibe in this law, and the 
retail dealer to pay a large license, it is in effect prohibiting the sale 
and use of that article. Why f Because every man who retails these 
goods anywhere in the country, in all these small towns where they 
are trying to introduce (if they are honest) this new food product, be- 
fore he can sell it to his customer, before he can have an opportunity 
of selling it at retail, some man has to take the responsibility of paying 
a heavy license fee before he can test this matter to see whether the 
people want this butter or not. The wholesale and the retail dealer 
must pay this, and in consequence it is a prohibition, because he can- 
not get it into the market and dispose of it. And then you propose to 
put a tax of 5 cents a pound upon all that is offered for sale. Why is 
this ? 

There is no use of covering this up in any disguise. These gentlemen 
who represent the dairy interests of this country have described to you 
the waste and desolation of some portions of this country — in New York, 
New Hampshire, and Vermont — in consequence, they say, of this com- 
petition with butter; and they ask you, in so many words, to add this 
tax upon oleomargarine and butter in order that it may make it come 
up nearly to the cost of the price of butter; and one gentleman stated 
that if they could do this the butter-makers of this country could get 
a quarter more for their butter, because it would bring the price of oleo- 
margarine nearly up to the price of butter, and the balance they would 
get then over and above what they are getting now would be clear 
profit, and it would put the dairy interests of the country on their feet. 
That without any disguise is the real object and intention of this bill, 
and I believe, and those with whom I am associated believe, that it is 
wrong, and contrary to the spirit and institutions of our countr^^ to tax 
one legitimate branch of industry for the protection of another branch 
of industry, and it is for that reason more ijarticularly that I am op- 
posed to the passage of this bilL 

These gentlemen who appear here in behalf of the dairy interests have 
accused the introduction and sale of oleomargarine as the cause of all 
the depreciation of the land and of the cows, the price of the cows and 
the price of butter ; they have charged all these things upon this manu- 
facture. I have read the stenographic report of the statement made by 
Mr. W. P. Richardson to this committee on a former occasion. He said 
he was president of the Orange County Milk Association, and that the 
competition between oleomargarine and butter affected them first in 
about 1884. He went on to state that in 1881 or 1882 the milk brought 
a very low price ; that the people got up sharp practices on them in 



176 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

New York, and they finally organized a society, and I think he said they 
were incorporated, and they got up what is known as the Orange County 
Milk War, and they carried on this fight until finally they accomplished 
their purpose, and the consumers in the city of New York were obliged 
to pay them remunerative i)rices, and in consequence of this combina- 
tion that they made they got up "a corner," so to speak, on milk, and 
by carrying that into execution the people in Orange County and 
the surrounding counties who joined in that combination made, he 
stated, in the year 1883 and 1884, a million dollars, and in the whole of 
the country embraced in their organization some three million dollars 
in addition to what they would have had if they had not had this orgau- 
ization. Then he says that in 1883 the people of the surrounding coun- 
ties, those who had been making butter more particularly, seeing the 
good prices that these people had received for their milk, dropped the 
making of butter, and sent a quantity of their milk to New York, and 
in 1883 they sent more, and in 1884 chey finally quit the making of but- 
ter and sent the milk to New York, so that it swamped them and broke 
up this combination. 

Now he charges this effect and loss to the sale of the competitive 
oleomargarine coming into the market. I do not believe that they can 
reasonably say that it was the competition with oleomargarine which re- 
duced the price of milk and which brought this affliction which they 
claim upon them. 

I want to call your attention to this fact also. Mr. S. P. Hibbard, a 
butter and cheese dealer in Boston, stated that the competition com- 
menced in 1881, but he said that butter was cheaper in 1879 than he 
had ever before or since known it, and he had been in the butter busi- 
ness for twenty years. He said that in 1879 butter sold at from 12 to 
14 cents a pound ; but he goes on and says that the farms had depre- 
ciated in New England about 50 per cent., especially in Vermont, since 
1870 and up to the present time. And we have had this statement 
made by several different gentlemen. They have called your attention 
to the depreciation in the price of farms that were particularly adapted 
to the dairy business. 

I refer to this, and call your attention to the fact that in 1873, when 
the panic came, it reduced the price of real estate, of cattle, and of every- 
thing else all over this country from one end of it to the other; it was 
not only in the dairy districts of New Hampshire, Vermont, and New 
York, but it extended all over the country. In proof of this I can make 
a statement from my own experience. Just before the panic, in 1872, I 
think it was, I was living in Chicago, and at that time I bought a house 
and lot. The panic came in 1873, and there has never been a time from 
that day until now that I could get one-half the amount I paid for it; I 
never have been offered one-half of what I paid for that property, and 
I have had it for sale. 

Another instance came under my own observation. A piece of prop- 
erty near where I lived about the time 1 bought this house I refer to, 
was appraised by good real-estate men in the city of Chicago ; they ap- 
praised it to be worth $47,500. That was in 1871 or 1872, and on that 
appraisement $35,000 was actually loaned upon that property. In 1880 
the persons who owned it, and who had borrowed this money, had gone 
through bankruptcy, and I bought that ])roperty for $20,000. 

I allude to this to show you that this depreciation in property cannot 
be traced to the introduction of oleomargarine or butterine or anything 
of that kind, but is one of the calamities that befell this country and 
which is liable to befall any country. Neither can these people say 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 177 

that because beef cattle are not worth as much now as they were four 
or five years ago, at the same time that they are not worth' from $2 to 
$3 more now in consequence of the ability to turn a certain portion of 
the fat into oleo oil. We cannot reason in that way. But when these 
men who are buying- cattle and slaughtering- them by the thousands, 
and who are hunting every opportunity to find an outlet for every part 
of these animals, the hoofs and horns, the hair, and everything which 
has been utilized in some way in order to meet sharp competition — when 
these men who have been engaged in this business for ten, fifteen, or 
twenty years come before us and say that they are enabled by the man- 
ufacture of oleomargarine to use the substance, this pure fat of the 
animal, and realize from $2.50 to 13 and $3.50 a head, 1 take that as 
true unless somebody can come up and show some other argument 
against it than the one that cattle are lower now than the> were a few 
years ago notwithstanding the manufacture of these articles. 

T want to call your attention to a statement I have here— I will not 
take up your time unnecessarily, but I have marked a passage and can 
refer to it easier than I can explain it in any other way. I want to call 
your attention to the statement also of Mr. G. W. Martin, of New York 
on this same subject, as contained in a stenographic report made of the 
proceedings before this committee at a former hearing. He says : " Go 
to the New England States to-day, where we can produce the best but- 
ter in Aii:erica, and you will find the laud there growing up into bushes 
and brambles. The old farm of my father in Vermont is nothing but a 
wilderness to-day, and his farm in Jefferson County will be a wilder- 
ness in ten years more if he is not protected, but is driven to the wall. 
That is why we want this tax imposed. If we do not have the tax we 
cannot have anything." 

That, I claim, is an honest expression so far as the object of this bill 
is concerned. They desire for you to put a tax upon this commodity, 
this oleomargarine without regard to its wholesomeness or unwhole- 
someness, without regard to whether it injures people or not, but to put 
a tax upon it so that it cannot be produced without making it cost as 
much as it costs to make butter in order that thev may get a larger 
price for their butter. But how is it that they can say to you, without 
a smile upon their face, that, when this oleomargarine has been upon 
the market only since 1880— one gentleman here to-day said that it 
came into strong competition in 1883— how is it that they can tell us 
that in that short time these farms im Vermont and in New Hampshire 
have been abandoned and grown up to be bushes and brambles and 
are fit only as a home for rabbits ? Gentlemen, that is not the real 
reason. It is not because oleomargarine has been made and put upon 
the market. Those reasons are not good. 

I also want to call your attention to the statement or argument of 
Gardiner B. Chapin, of Boston, who was here also to day and made a 
statement to you in regard to this subject. He said in his testimony: 
" I Have seen on one little road in New Hampshire the remains of nine- 
teen houses where the houses have rotted down and nothing but the cel- 
lars remained; the people had abandoned them and gone away. And 
that is only in one part of N^ew Hampshire. In the State of Maine 
there are similar instances." 

He also says: " The people often come down to Boston and say to 
me, 'Show me some butterine; show me some oleomargarine.' I take 
them to the place where they retail it, and they try it and shake their 
heads and say, ' I have got through ; that is enough.' One gentleman 
told me that in a district where he lived in N^ew Hampshire there were 
17007 OL 12 



178 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

80 schools. ' When I visited my old home last year,' he said, ' I found 
they were keeping up a school theie lor tour scholars.' The farmers — 
the youug men — had been driven away from home by this same de- 
pression, and they come to the city and live there as long as they can, 
and then go somewhere else. But they leave the New England farms 
because they cannot compete with these manufacturers of oleomargar- 
ine or butterine." 

Now did anybody ever see a more glowing picture of x)overty de- 
scribed than this ! Here is oleomargarine that these men say has been 
in competition since 1880, perhaps, or 1883, and yet this gentlemeu 
comes here and tells you that as he goes back ht)nie and looks at his 
old homestead and sees right along in a little road the remains of nine- 
teen houses that had rotted down — there is not a vestige of a door or 
window or anything left of them, the chimneys even had gone, and they 
have become absolutely so poor up there that they cannot raise chil- 
dren - and, he says, it is in consequence of this competition with oleo- 
margarine. He says the people come down to Boston from there — this 
little remnant that is left— they come down there and they say, " Show 
me oleomargarine — this five year-old monster which has depopulated 
our houses and which has rotted down our houses and left nothing but 
the cellars remaining." And he shows them oleomargarine, and they 
look at it and shake their heads and — go West. 

Now, gentlemen, do you believe they have any right to charge all 
these things upon the manufacture of oleomargarine? Is there any ques- 
tion, can there be any question here before you at this time, as to what 
the object of those who are urging you to recommend this bill is! Is 
it not that you may tax one of these industries, which, they say, is a 
ivicked monster, full of destruction and death ? And there is not one of 
them who undertakes to show its unwholesomeness, except that some 
neighbor has said so, or surmised it. Yet these men, honest men, come 
and tell you just what is in it, and every ingredient in it has been on 
the tables of refined people for ages, and nobody has received any inju- 
rious efiect from it. We know what its etfects are. 

The object of this biU is to have you tax this industry and put it in 
such shape that the poor people of this country cannot be benefited. 
They ridicule that idea. I want to tell you what I saw myself, as you 
ask people to state facts. Last Saturday I had occasion to go through 
one part of Armour & Company's establishment in Chicago where they 
retail their butterine, and it is at least a half mile from the street-oars 
or from any public conveyance. To reach there the people must go 
through the stock-yards and over the viaduct a long distance, and when 
I was there there were at least one hundred, if not one hundred and 
fifty, men, women, and children. They were mechanics, laboring men, 
and the wives and children of laboring men and mechanics, and there 
the sign was displayed in large letters, "Oleomargarine and Butterine," 
and those people weie there buying it. Nobody could suppose that 
they did not know what they were buying. They had to go right by 
groceries where they claimed to be selling pure butter ; they had to go 
nearly three quarters of a mile from the street-cars on foot in this warm 
weather. They went there and they were buying this at the factory 
where they knew they made it and where theie was a large sign upon 
which was displayed the words "Oleomargarine and Butterine." There 
was not a person there who could, by any construction that anybody 
could put u])on the circumstances, be said not to kuow that he was 
buying butterine. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 179 

Senator Blair. Wbat prices do they pay? 

Mr. Coy. I asked, and they said, I think, they were selling it at from 
9 to 10 cents a })Ound. 

Senator Blair. These peojde were consumers? 

Mr. Coy, Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. And were getting it at !> or 10 c^nts a pound, the 
wholesale price, and they got an article which they knew they were 
buying"? 

Mr. Coy. There is no question about their knowing it. I asked Mr. 
Cuddy, who is one of the members of the firm (I had some business with 
him), how much they sold in that way to consumers who came there to 
get it, and he said some days tliey sold as high as 2,000 pounds of it. 

Senator Jones. Do they sell any genuine butter, or butterine and oleo- 
margarine alone? 

Mr. Coy. They never pretend to sell anything but oleomargarine 5 
they do not claim to sell anything else. 

Senator Blair. And they sell it, and the purchaser gets it, for a low 
price"? 

Mr. Coy. Yes, sir. I understand that 10, 12, and 14 cents are the 
prices of the three grades which they retail there at their establishment, 
and they are selling now from 500 to 1,000 pounds at their establish- 
ment a day. 

Senator Blair. What is the price of butter iu Chicago ? 

Mr. Coy. The last I bought there from a farmer who came into town 
cost me 35 cents. 

Senator Blair. If the circumstances were such that that 10 cent 
article could be sold to people who did not understand it at 35 cents, there 
would be room for protection. But these are honest iientlemen, who 
make an honest article, which they sell for an honest price. The griev- 
ance complained of is that other circumstances intervene in other cases, 
so that a 9 or 10 cent article is sold for 35 cents to the man who cannot 
detect the dilference. 

Mr. Coy. That is the point I was trying to make a few moments ago, 
how to do away with this prejudice, and do away with this cry that 
there is something wrong in this article. As one of the gentlemen who 
is in favor of this bill stated, the grocers have had to sell it for butter 
because they could not sell it as oleomargarine. But if this product 
can be put upon the market at the price they sell it for there, and peo- 
l)le know what it is, this prejudice that has been created by people say- 
ing that it is poisonous, &c., could be done away with, and then the 
laboring classes of people all over the country would buy it. 

I say if you pass a law like this and require these people to pay a li- 
cense, and every man who sells it has to pay a license before he can of- 
fer any for sale, yon "boycott" the business; you put it in such a shape 
that they can never send it out to the country where men can buy it 
and know just what they are getting and pay the reduced price for it. 
The trouble with this thing in Boston is, as has been stated, that they 
have been saying that this article is poisonous. It looks just like but- 
ter, but, as they say, when a person offers it cheap they will not buy it, 
and then the dealer puts a higher price on it and they buy it readily. 
If this prejudice could be done away with, the article would sell upon 
its merit. I never have seen a prejudice created which was dying away 
so fast as the prejudice against oleomargarine is dying away in the 
communities where they are using it and know what they are getting. 

The Chairman. What is the objection then to having it inspected, 
branded, licensed, and sold for what it is "? 



180 IMITATION DAIKY PRODUCTS. 

Mr. Coy. One objection is this : Tbe objectiou to tbe licensing is that 
it is H commodity wholesome as an article ot food, and which goes into 
general use in tbe place of butter, which is the most commonly used 
article throughout the country, and when you go to licensing you license 
tbe manufacturer and you license tbe wholesale dealer. Nobody pre- 
tends but w hat every wholesale dealer knows that be is buying oleo- 
margarine when he buys it. But you make him pay a license, and you 
make every man who ktei)s a store at the cross-roads, or in a town, pay 
a license be for be can offer it to anybody to let them see what it is and 
let Ibem become accustomed to it. You make him pay a license of $48 
and it amounts to a prohibition. You cannot introduce it under those 
circumstances. You boycott and prohibit it by your licenses and taxes. 
The law would tend to make all people more dishonest. 1 hold that to 
tax this property, if it is a wholesome commodity, in order to make 
peoj^le i^ay more for butter, or to pay more for cheese, is as unjust a 
proposition as was ever offered to any legislature, under tbe spirit of 
our institutions. 

Tbe Chairman. 1 do not understand your answer. You commenced 
telling us about people who bought it knowing what it Avas, and then 
stated if the retail dealer of the country bad to have a license it was equiv- 
alent to boycotting it. Then you state that tbe prejudice is wearing away. 
INow, is it not better, if ibe article is good and wholesome, that it sbould 
be put squarely on its own merits, and sold everywhere absolutely for 
what it is, and let it work its way into the favor of the public if it can ? 

Mr. Coy. Yes, sir ; and anything that would bring that about I am 
in favor of. 1 would advocate the selling of it for just what it is. 

Tbe Chairman. Any legislation that would secure that result abso- 
lutely would meet with your approval ! 

Mr. Coy. Any legislation which would place this article before tbe pub- 
lic so that everybody would know exactly what he was getting would 
meet with my approbation. It is understood at the present time that 
tbe mass of tbe people wbo use it are the poorer or laboring classes, and 
they buy it because it is cheaper than butter, and if you tax it 

Tbe Chairman. We do not care to go into the question of taxation ; 
that has not been discussed much. We are not getting at the details of 
legislation whicb must be settled by a legislative body. What we are 
trying to get is the opinion of people as to some general plan to be 
adopted. Whether it shall be done by taxes, licenses, inspection, or any 
other processes know n to tbe laws is a question that the committee do 
iriot care to hear much about; that is a question of opinion. We want 
to know bow it is sold and made, and whether it finally makes its way, 
when sold, upon its own merits. 

Mr. Coy. There is one thing I omitted to say. It has been my convic- 
tion that tbe manufacture and sale of oleomargarine, instead of depreci- 
ating" tbe price of good butter, really enhances it. That was my idea 
when I came away from home, and I find that Mr. James Hewes, wbo is 
president of tbe Produce Exchange of Baltimore, stated to you on a pre- 
vious occasion that when this matter first came up, when oleomargarine 
ibegan to compete with butter, be says be thought tbey would defeat it 
by making good butter; but be sajs tbe men who manufactured these 
articles were sharp and went to where good butter was made and put 
«p tbe prices of good butter until they could not get butter without pay- 
ing fictitious prices, because the oleomargarine men bought it and used 
it in their manufacture. I believe that corroborates the statement of 
Mr. Webster here, tbat tbe butter they use in this product is tbe best 
butter tbey can get. I believe from what I have known and seen of 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 181 

these articles that first-class butter will brino a better price in conse- 
quence of tbeui, and that tbe.v ouly compete with second-class butter 
after it is put on the market. I was glad, in looking over the evidence, 
to see that his opinion coincided with mine upon this subject. 

There can be, it seems to me, but one question about this. With a; 
tax such as is proposed by this law, this article cannot be put upon the 
market and sold for what it is, so that peo])le may buy it knowingly. I 
believe it would be a great blessing to the people of this country. Surely 
economical men, if tliis is just as delicious to the taste and smell and 
answers every i)urpose of butter, will buy it, and the people generally 
will lose their prejudice against it if these restrictions are not put upom 
its manufacture. 

Senator Blair. How would you attain that end; what legislation 
would you have to accomplish that purpose"? 

Mr. Coy. I think if the dairymen themselves would speak of it just 
as it is, instead of trying to scare and prejudice people against it, ancl 
let it be sold for what it is, 1 think it would accomplish every purpose 
desired; but how to accomplish that, I tell you frankly, I do not know. 

Senator Blair, Here are just two senses you can appeal to if yoit 
want to find out whether it is oleomargarine or not, the taste and the 
eyesight. You do not handle it; you keep your Augers out of it. lti» 
conceded you cannot tell the diiference by the taste of most people^ 
then what other sense is there except that of sight to appeal to ! 

Mr. Coy. That is about all there is for ordinary people. 

Senator Blair. If you make a difference in the color, have you not 
got the only earthly test there is"? 

Ml-. Coy. That 1 think is the only real test. But I tell you in five or 
six years from now, if you color this oleomargarine black, these secoud- 
class butter fellows will be imitating it by coloring their butter black. 

Senator Blair. It is very likely that butterine may sell better thau 
l>our butter. But the oleomargarine people will never pretend that 
oleomargarine is better than good butter. 

Mr. Coy. I will make this one suggestion, whicli will cover the idea 
I have about it, and then I will not say anything more, because there- 
has been a great deal said upon this subject. The Egyptians, in the 
dark ages, at the time of tbe building of the pyramids, worshipped a, 
bull, an idol, and in the days of Moses the people fell down and wor- 
shipped a golden calf. If this bill becomes a law in the present Con- 
gress we may have the spectacle presented of an altar being erected iuc 
America, in the nineteenth century, for the worship of the dairy cow, 
and a law prescribing sacrifices more galling than any hideous god ever 
made; because every man, woman, and child, without regard to age or 
color, health or sickness, three times a day, will have to sacrifice some 
of their hard earnings upon this altar, or, as a penance, eat dry bread. 
If you pass this law you i)rohibit the manufacture, sale, and use of ole- 
omargarine, and you i>ut it into the hands of the dairymen so that they 
can charge an advanced price for butter, or fix whatever price they see 
fit, and the poor i)eople throughout the country have to go without or 
pay those exorbitant prices. 

The Chairman. What did they do before this wonderful inventioR 
was discovered? 

Mr. Coy. Tbey went without, I suppose : that is, they could not afford 
to pay for butter. 

Senator Blair. Butter was not so high ? 

Mr. Coy. No, sir; the price was not as high. These ravages in New 
England had not commenced where the oleomargarine has rotted dowD 
the houses. 



182 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Senator Sawyer. Do you believe that there is any other way to regu- 
late it besides coloring it ? '^''ould there not be a license tax, a light tax, 
so that the Government could control it and so that it would be abso- 
lutely certain that it was sold for what it was without doing any injus- 
tice to any one ? 

Mr. Coy. I do not know but what that could be accomplished. 

Senator Sawyer. There is no way for the Government to deal with 
this matter unless they do it through a tax ; at least I do not know how 
it can. But if the tax was made a light one, so that the Government 
could absolutely control the matter and know absolutely what was d<me, 
it would not increase the price very seriously. 

Mr. Coy. The only sure way that I can see to regulate the matter is 
the way designated by Senator Blair, to color it. But I am not hereto 
recommend that. 

The Chairman. Do you know what the cost of manufacture is ? 

Mr. Coy. No, sir; I have no knowledge on that subject except from 
hearsay. 

The Chairman. Do you know what the wholesale price is ? 

Mr. Coy. I do not ; 1 could only tell from hearsay. 

The Chairman. What do you understand the retail price of it is ? 

Mr. Coy. The retail price in Chicago, where it is sold, where they go 
to Armour & Co.'s factory 

The Chairman. I do not refer to that; I refer to the price after it is 
sold by the retail dealers throughout the country. 

Mr. Coy. 1 suppose it is sold at from 12 to 15 cents, but I do not know 
positively" about that. That is my idea of it, that it is sold for several 
cents less than butter. 

The Chairman. If it is sold for just what it is, so that everybody 
knows it, it will not be likely to be sold very much above its actual 
cost, will it? 

Mr. Coy. I think it would be sold for a fair and square profit, like 
any other commodity, if everybody knew just exactly what they were 
getting. I think it would be better for the manufacturers dealing in it. 

The Chairman. It would be better for the consumer to buy it at a 
fair ])rofit on the cost, instead of paying the same price as for butter, 
as frequently is done? 

Mr. Coy. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. Would it not be sufficient to the manufacturer and 
offset any i)rejudice that has been created in regard to it if it were sold 
at actual cost i)rice with a fair profit added ? 

Mr. Coy. 1 think it would, but how to get at it is another thing. 

The Chairman. It would seem as though if it were sold for what it 
was The consumer would get tlie profit instead of the middle man. 

Mr. Coy. All the objection I can conceive that anybody could have 
to the sale of this article is that it is sold for butter instead of being 
sold for what it is. When you come down to the facts of the case that 
is all there is of it. But 1 do not know that people who offer it in this 
way are any more entitled to be called swindlers and other hard names 
than those who make white butter and color it so that it looks like good 
grass butter; it amounts to about the same thing. But if people can 
get this article, and know just what tliey are getting, and are sure they 
are getting what they pay for, I think it woukl be better for the manu- 
facturer, the consumer, and everybody else. 

Senator Sawyer. Do you know of any way in which we can do that? 
Could we do it by imposing a light license or a tax? I would like to 
get your judgment in regard to tliat. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 183 

Ml. (Joy. I have thought about that matter considerably aud am free 
to cout'ess that it is an enigma to me. Here are other branches of busi- 
ness; for instance, the manufacturing- business where they mix cotton 
with woolen goods. I might mention other branches of business in the 
same wa3\ Yon cannot legislate to make men honest. 

Senator Blair, No, but you can legislate to save others from the con- 
sequences of their dishonest. 

Mr. Coy. You can if you can contrive some way that will just fit the 
case, but that is a pretty difficult thing to do. 

The Chairman. Have you anything further to add? 

Mr. Coy. No, sir; I have not. 



STATEMENT OF PETER COLLIER. 

Prof. Peter Collier, of Chicago, ex-chemist of the Department of 
Agriculture, then addressed the committee. 

As it seems to be the rule to give one's agricultural pedigree, I would 
say that T am a great-grandson of a New York farmer, a grandson of 
a New York farmer, and the sou of a New York farmer, and formerly 
was connected with farming operations myself. 

I have been for twenty- live years of my life devoted to the interests 
of agriculture and am today. I have oidy a personal interest in this 
bill which is before the committee. I have read the statements which 
have been made by many gentlemen high in official position and of 
acknowledged influence in the country, and I feel that statements 
which have been made, some of them this afternoon, are alarming in 
their character; and it is because i feel that their conclusions are not 
justified, that their statements are incorrect, that I am anxious to pre- 
sent what 1 have before .\ on. 

1 think that in this inatter it is of the utmost iiu|)ortance that a proper 
diagnosis of what is really a serious case should be made, aud I think 
this bill proceeds on the ])rinciple that a very erroneous diai^nosis has 
been made of this disease; but if you will give your attention to the 
matter, as you are doing, with a pro])er diagnosis you might legislate la 
some way to correct what we admit is an acknowledged evil. 

I would say that for ten years 1 was living in Vermont, and was sec- 
retary of the first V»oard of agricultui'e they had there, and remained 
in that position for years. I am familiar with all this testimony which 
has been given in regard to the de])opulation among the farming people 
of Vermont. That was common in 187.5 and 1873, long before Mege 
even discovered oleomargarine. 

Now, in regard to some of the facts, I have prepared here simply a 
series of diagrams. They are all based upon facts which were collected 
long before any thought of the use to which they would be ])ut was 
raised. They are gathered mainly from the Bureau of Statistics of the 
Treasury Department and from the statistical division of the Agricult- 
ural Department. Allow me to quote one or two things which have 
been claimed that 1 i>ro[)ose to disprove. For instance, Mr. Moreland, 
secietary of the American Agricultural and Dairy Association, says: 
"I stand here to sj)eak of the capital invested, 16,000,000 cows, worth 
in the aggregate $()00,000,000." He also says : Had it not been for 
this oleomargarine fraud, instead of 10,000,000 of dairy cows in this 
country tiiere would to day be 25,000,000, and this vast number of cows 
would be worth $1,000,000,000." Again he says: "Our farms have 
depreciated in value for the reason that there is no demand for our 
dairy j nod acts.'' 



184 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Mr, Joseph H. Eeall, presiileiit of the Ameiicaii Agiicultuial and 
Dairy Association, says : " I speak in belialf of tbe owners of 15,000,000 
milcb cows, enii)loyed in tlie ])r<i(lnction ol bntter and cheese, worth 
$600,000,000, at $40 per head." Again Mr. Eeall says ; " The industry 
aflected by this fianduleiit tiaffic is a princii)al one in Vermont, New 
Y(»rk, JSJew Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, 
while it is an important one in Massachusetts, >;ew Hampshire, Michi- 
gan, Indiiiiia, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and 
Kentucky." He says : " We have kept away fiom Congress for ten 
years, tr^, ing all other means, only to find the evil growing daily and the 
dairy business declining, until now we must have relief or the nation 
loses an imi)ortant industry"— -showing that these disastrous results 
have been going on for ten years. I speak of this because I have taken 
the last results of the Depaitment of Agriculture, the rejiort of 1884, 
and consequently can co\er but eight of the last ten years. 

With more authority, the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture 
of the House in his report, submitted on the 28th of A^^ril, favoring a 
tax of 10 cents per pound on oleomargarine, is reported to have said, 
that — 

After au exhaustive examination tbe committee tind that there are in the United 
States ov. r 15,000,000 cows, producing annually over 1,000,000,000 pounds of butter, 
and 300.000,000 pounds of cheese, worth |2oO,000,000 ; that an amount of milk of equal 
value is annually consumed, makiug the value of the annual products of tbe dairy 
interests $500,000,000 ; that cows \sere worth on tbe average $40 per head until tbe 
introduction of counterfeit butter, aud are now worth but $30 each, making a total 
loss of $150,000,000 in milch cows alone. 

I have here, gentlemen, some diagrams which have been prepaied 
with great care, which show the average value of milch cows from 1' 10 
to 1884; the number of milch cows in the United States from 1870 to 
1880; the average value of principal farm cioi)sfrom 1870 to 1882; the 
avti age monthly wages of farm labor from 18(30 to 1882 ; the ])ercentage 
changes in the acreage and values ot the hay and all crops of the farm 
from 1874 to 1883 ; the exports, in pounds, of butter and oleomargarine 
since 1877 ; the fluctuations of value ])er pound of the butter and oleo- 
margarine exported since 1877; the butter and cheese productic us of 
Canada for the years 1851, 1861, 1871, and 1881 ; the average va\v per 
head ot farm animals from 1870 to 1884, and the changes in valees of 
farm aninnils by per cent, of values iu 1870. 

The diagrajus and explanatory statements submitted by Prof'issor 
Collier in tliis connection are as follows: 

Diagram No. 1 exhibits the tinctuation in the value i)er head of 
milch cows in the United States, as also in the States of Wisconsin and 
Illinois from 1870 to 1884. 

These tigures are all taken from the statistical reports of the De- 
paitment of Agriculture, the last annual report being that of 1884. 

The Elgin Board of Trade, in a recent resolution declared that " the 
uianufactare of oleomargarine has depreciated the value of all dairy 
cattle in these States (Wisconsin and Illinois) by at least $10 per 
head." Since 1872 cows have been continuously lower than iu 1884. 

Diagram No. 2 shows the number of milch cows and their average 
value per head since 1870. It will be seen that there has been an un- 
interrupted and steady increase in the number of milch cc vvs iuce 
1870, without any refeience whatever to the very great iiuctuatio. s in 
price, thus proving that the profits of the dairy at any period wt ■ re- 
garded as being fully as good as any other branch of the agricui ral 
industry, and that those profits were controlled by causes which coer- 







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IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 185 

ated largely upou all the iudiistries of the country alike. Compare 
diagrams Nos. 3 and 4. 

Compare with diagram No. 3 the one giving average value of milch 
cows, No. 1 ; also the one giving average wages of farm labor i)er month, 
No. 4. 

It will clearly appear that similar causes operated in all three cases, 
and the past three years have seen prices for many products, in very 
many cases, lower proportionally than have been those of dairy prod- 
ucts, as, for example, flour, pork, lard, beef, sugar, coffee, tea, and 
many other products of similar character. Wheat and corn have been 
and are almost phenomenally low. 

Diagram No. 4 shows the changes in the average monthly wages of 
farm labor for the several sections of the country from 18G6 to 1882. 

They clearly show, as does the diagram No. 3, giving the values of farm 
crops, as also does diagrau) No. 1, giving tiie value of milch cows, that, 
" these remarkable fluctuations, from the highest rates after the war to 
those of the era of industrial dei)ression and return to specie payments, 
followed by an ui^ward swing of the pendulum," during the past three 
years we have also passed through a serious depression in all business, 
and prices have been unprecedentedly low. 

Diagram No. 5 shows the j)ercentage changes in the acreage and 
values of the hay and all crops of the farm from 1874 to 1883. 

It will be seen that in the increase of value and of acreage the bay 
closely follows the total of all crops, thus showiua that there has been 
no falling off either in the relative acreage or in the relative vaUie of 
the hay as cou^pared with the acreage and value of all the principal 
farm crojis since 1874. 

The acreages and values of the hay crop and of all croi)s in 1874 is 
taken as 100, and it will be seen that the acreage of each had by 1883 
increased about 63 per cent. The total value of the hay crop had in- 
creased about 16 per cent., and of all crops about 21 per cent. 

Diagram No. 6 shows the exports, in pounds, of butter and oleomar- 
garine since 1877. It should be considered in connection with diagram 
No. 7, giving the prices of each, as also in connection with diagram No. 
8, giving butter production in Canada. 

It will ai)pear from the prices that butter can hardly have been dis- 
placed by oleomargarine, and the very great increase in production of 
Canadian butter will explain the falling off in our expartations since 
1S80. 

Diagram No. 7 shows the fluctuations of value per pound of the but- 
ter and oleomargarine exported since 1877. It will be seen that the 
prices have risen and fallen together, a result not in accord with the 
opinion that the one has displaced the other. This diagram should be 
considered in connection with No. 6, which gives the exports of butter 
and oleomargarine in pounds. 

Diagram No. 8 shows the butter and cheese production of Canada for 
theyearsl851, 1861, 1871, and 1881. Theaverage exports of butter from 
the United States from 1871 to 1881 was 16,728,490 pounds, and it will be 
seen that the increased butter i)roduction of Canada from 1871 to 1881 
was 27,372,646 pounds, nearly double our export of butter. This large 
supply from Canada has doubtless interfered seriously with our ex- 
portations. 

It will be seen that while the butter jiroduction of Canada increased 
from 1851 to 1881 over 200 ])er cent, the production of cheese actually 
decreased. 



186 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Diaiiraui No. 9 shows the fluctuatious iu value per head of farm 
auiiuals from 1870 to 1884. It will be observed that they closely 
follow each other, thus couclusively i)roviug' that whatever cause or 
causes have been operative iu iucreasiug- or decreasing the value of one 
have been operative in all. Compare diagram No. 10, which shows the 
change iu i)ercentage of value since 1870, and which shows, therefore, a 
more marked agreement between the changes of value in farm animals. 
This chart and No. 10 i)rove beyoud a doubt that the -prices for milch 
cows have not been exceptional. 

Diagram No. 10 shows the fluctuations in values of farm animals 
from 1870 to 1884, by percentage of value. The value per head of each 
at 1870 is taken as 100, and prices each year siuce are given in per 
cents, of the value i)er head in 1870. It will be seen that they all show 
remarkable agreement; that they all attained the miuimum price iu 
1879, and since then rapidly increased. Compare with this diagram 
No. 9, also Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4, which fully contirm this and each other. 

The Chairman. How are those figures com])iled ? 

Professor Collier. From the records ot the Department of Agricult- 
ure aud from the Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Departtnent. 

The Chairman. Will you turn back to the first chart in regard to 
the value of cows. You make the highest point of value at what year ? 

Professor Collier. The highest poiut is at 1870. They were theu a 
trifle over $39 per head. 

The Chairman. That chart comes up to what time ? 

Professor Collier. The year 1885 is the last, aud I secured that from 
the statistics presented, I think, by Mr. Henderson in the House. He 
used them, and I use his figures for the United States for 1885. I was 
unable to get tliem from the xigricultural Dei)artmeut. 

The Chairman. What do the figures show for that year? 

Professor Collier. That was slightly more than iu 1884. It was 
about $31 40, or something like that. 

The Chairman. Does that refer to tbe whole country, or to the 
Western States only "? I do not quite understand. 

Professor Collier. It refeis to the United States. I have here in- 
dicated also the values iu Illinois aud Wisconsin. They averaged a 
little higher in those States than iu the United States. 

The Chairman. Do you not think the average farmer of the country 
w ould be somewhat surprised to know or to be told by a statistician that 
his cows were worth more now than they were two years ago. 

Professor Collier. This does not show what the value is now. I 
have no results except this one for 1885, which I got from Mr. Hender- 
son's speech. 

The Chairman. Where does Mr. Henderson's infortnation come from I 

Professor Collier. It was [uiblished in the Congressional Record. 
I tuiuk he got it from the Agricultural Department, an advance report 
which I was unable to get; buc 1 get it from the pul>lished annual re- 
ports of which I Lave a set, and the last i»ubiished was 1884. 

The Chairman. I think the bulk of the farmers, so far as I know, 
would be delighted to know that their cows were wortb more now than 
they were two years ago. 

Professor CoLLiER. This does not seem to assert that. 

The Chairman. If they could only be made to believe it and could 
get the money it would be \'ery satisfactory. 

Professor Collier. But the figures from the Agricultural Depart- 
ment show that there has been a continuous increase in the average 
value from 1879 up to 1885. What it was for 18S6 I do not know. 



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IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 187 

Senator Blair. 1 would like to ask a question or two of Professor 
Baljcock. What are the principal substauces which you obtain from 
the animal which are mixed with the dairy products and make the oleo- 
margarine and butteriue ? 

Prolessor Babcock. There are steariue, palmatin, olein and margarine. 
Those are the chemical names of well-dotined fatty bodies, which are 
slightlj modified in the fats of different animals, but belong to the same 
general class. 

Senator Blair. 1 understood from yourself or Professor Morton that 
sonje of these substances are obtained from cotton seed. 

Professor Babcock. A certain amount of stearine and more of the 
product known as olein are obtained from cotton seed. 

Senator Blaie, Are any of those substances obtained from other veg- 
etable sources than cotton seed. 

Professor Babcock. Oh, yes, sir; all vegetable oils, what are called 
fatty oils. 

Senator Blair. Please mention some of the vegetable substauces 
which yield them most freely and are most cheaply obtained by ])roper 
and suitable ])rocesses. . 

Professor Babcock. Palm oil contains less of olein and more of 
stearine, solid bodies, and is used for making soap largely. 

Senator Blair. That comes from the palm tree. 

Professor Babcock. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. I want to know the vegetable growths from which 
these substances can be obtained most cheaply and plentifully. 

Professor Babcock. Do you mean, to be used in making butter! 

Senator Blair. Yes. 

Professor Babcock. Palm oil is not of that character. 

Senator Blair. I ask you what other sources of" competition the dairy 
interests have by tLie taking of these outside substances and painting 
them the color of the dairy product. 

Professor Babcock. There are a great many bodies which contain 
stearine, margarine, and olein. Perhaps, as a very general statement, 
it might be said that all fatty bodies contain one oi the other ot these 
in different ])roi>ortions. So does butter. In addition to this pure but- 
ter contains -i or 5 per cent., and that only, of quite a number of 
fatty bodies which give it a liavor. Some of those were mentioned in 
the list ot dangerous poisons which it was alleged were referred to in 
the speciticatioiis of patents for making these couipounds. 

Senator Blair. Is there anything but cotton seed growing in this 
country that is likely to yield these oils to an appreciable extent so as 
to be utilized in the manufacture of oleomargarine or butteriue, or any 
substance competing with i)ure dairy butter 'I 

Professor Babcock. There does not at this moment occur to me any 
vegetable product other than cotton seed which would be likely to be 
substituted or used in that way. 

Senator Blair. If cotton seed was utilized to as full an extent as it 
could be for that purpose, to what extent would it compete with the au- 
mal fats ? 

Professor Babcock. It must be solidified ; it couhl not be used as a 
whole, because it is a fluid. 

Senator Blair. How is that done ? 

Professor Babcock. By a mixture with solid fat. 

Senator Blaik. Which must come from the animal ? 

Professor Babcock. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. There is no way of dispensing with the anima' alto- 
gether ''. 



18S IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Professor Babcook. I know of noue. 

Senator Blair. Then there must be some natural limit to the amount 
of oleomargarine and butterine which can be produced in the country ? 

Professor Babcock. I never heard any one of intelligence doubt 
that proposition. 

Senator Blair. What is that limit, as it is in your mind ? 

Professor Babcock. 1 could not say. I do not know. I should have 
to guess at it ; I have not any data at all. But the amount could be 
estimated (based upon figures which I have not) about the production 
of cotton seed. 

Senator Blair. But probably cotton seed is not an important factor 
in this, is it ? 

Professor Babcock. No, sir, I think not. 

The Chairman. Mr. Webster said they used but a very little of it. 

STATEMENT OF ELMER WASHBURN. 

Mr. Elmer Washburn, of Chicago, next addressed the committee : 
Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee: I am engaged in the 
banking business at the Union Stock-Yards at Chicago. I am a mem- 
ber of the Chicago Live Stock Exchange, and am here in company with 
two other members of that association, asking a hearing before your 
honorable committee upon the pending legislation "imposing a tax upon 
and regulating the manufacture, sale, im])ortation, and exportation of 
oleomargarine." Our exchangehas a membership of two hundred, among 
whom are the largest feeders, dealers, shippers, and slaughterers of live 
stock, the largest packers, canners, and shippers of meats, the largest 
margarine, and butterine in the woild. We are here in the interests of 
shippers of dresse<l beef, and the largest nianufacturers of oleooil, oleo- 
the vast cattle-raising industry of the laud, and in the interests of equal 
rights to all, and in the interests of the millions of consumers to whom 
this object of taxation proves a cheap, wholesome, and. almost indis- 
pensable article of food, to earnestly, but respectfully, protest against 
the passage of the bill under consideration, and to present such facts 
as we have at command to justify our i)rotesT. 

Referring to the cattle industry, and in order to give the committee 
a clearer idea of its magnitude and the consequent loss to the farmer 
by taxing one of its products, we will state that in the year 1885 there 
were received at the Union Stock Yards of Chicago 1,905,518 head of 
cattle. Of this number l,;i22,385 head were slaughtered in Chicago, 
and at least 450,000 more were sold in Chicago and shipped alive for 
slaughtering in the East. From an average recently made from the 
books of our largest cattle-slaughtering house, it seems that during a 
period of four months ending 10th June, 1886, they slaughtered 147,893 
head, which produced : 

Pounds. 

Oleooil 28.1 

Stearine 21. 2 

Tallow 12. 2 

Total 61.5 

The value of which would be, at the average prices, for 1885 : 

28.1 pounds oleo oil, lUf |3 02 

21.2 pouuds steaiine, G| 1 45 

12.2 pounds tallow, 51 63 

5 10 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 189 

Sixty -cue and five-tenths pounds tallow at the average price for 1885, 
5^ per pound, equals $3.19, which subtracted from $5.10, leaves $1.91 
net loss per head if mauufacture of oleo oil should be stopped. 

In addition to this, the price of tallow would certainly be very much 
decreased by so large an addition to the supply. Figuring the amount of 
butter stock ift a beef as shown by my statement, to wit, 61.5 pouuds, 
at 3 cents per pound, which would not be too low for tallow with a largely 
increased supply, and we have $1.84, which subtracted from $5.10, leaves 
$3.20 for the net loss per head. The net loss could not certainly be less 
than $3 per head. It will be seen, as previously shown, that the num- 
ber of cattle slaughtered in Chicago and sold there to be slaughtered 
in the East, amounted in 1885 to 1,722,385 head, and that the net loss 
on these cattle alone for one year at $3 per head would amount to 
$5,167,155. To this sum add the loss at same rate per head on the cattle 
slaughtered at other considerable points, and not coming to the Union 
Stock Yards of Chicago and not included in that estimate, which, al- 
though comparatively small, must reach 500,000 head, and we have a 
total loss on cattle, annually slaughtered at the slaughtering points, of 
more than $6,500,000. Whatever teu<Is to depreciate the value of fat 
cattle iu the Chicago market tends to depreciate the entire stock of 
cattle on the rauges and on the farms and elsewhere in the country, 
and we think it would be pertinent to consider the loss that the passage 
of this bill would immediately entail ui)on the holders of the entire 
stock of cattle in the land, other than milch cows, which nuraber some 
31,275,000 head. 

The Chairman. Would it inteirupt you right there to ask a ques- 
tion? Of course that statement is based on the assumption that the 
passage of this law would absolutely stop the manufacture of oleo- 
margarine and oleo oil; you think none of it would be sold if it was 
compelled to be sold for what it is ? 

Mr. Washburn. If it was compelled to be sold for what it is 1 think 
it would be sold. 

The Chairman. Then, if business went on alter the bill was passed, 
and the goods were sold for what they are instead of something else, 
the consumption of oleo oil would continue to the extent to which the 
business was conducted ? 

Mr. Washburn. Yes; if the tax and other obstructions were not 
thrown in the way of its manufacture. 

The Chairman. The loss is based entirely on your own figures. In 
making those figures you have counted out not only the oleo but the 
stearine also, and reduced the price of tallow, in case tallow was made, 
to 3^ cents per pound. Before oleo was made at all, stearine was ex- 
tracted from the fat of the beef and used for making candles and for 
other purposes, and would continue to be, even if the business of mak- 
ing oleo oil were entirely abandoned. 

Mr. Washburn. I do not know ; I could not say as to that. 

The Chairman. It would be fair to assume, perhaps, that a business 
carried on for many years would still continue, even if the business of 
making oleo ceased entirely. I do not see how you can aflbrd to assume 
that this entire business is to be stopped by this bill, unless you go to 
the other extreme and say that it will not be sold at all if sold for what 
it is. 

Mr. Washburn. That is the impression among all the oianufacturers. 

The Chairman. You think that is their idea ; that if this bill were 
to become a law the entire business would be given up ^ 

Mr. Washburn. Yes sir. 



190 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

The Chairman. That must be tlieu on the ground that it cannot be 
sold undents own naiuf* and upon its own merits. However, I will not 
nterrupt you further. 

Mr. Washburn. The largest interests to be indirectlj' and injuriously 
aflected by the i>assage of this bill are the interests represented by our 
exchange, amounting in values invested to $100,000,000, and giving 
employment to 30,000 men, upon whose daily wages 90,000 people sub- 
sist. 

It has been claimed by the dairymen, or some one representing them, 
that competition with butterine and oleomargarine manufacturers has 
been so destructive to their interests that it has compelled the sale, 
at a great sacrifice, of as many as 300,000 milch cows in one year, at 
the Union Stock Yards of Chicago. The facts do not justify any 
such statement. In 1885 there were slaughtered at the Chicago yards 
11 7,794 branded or range cows ; 83,925 native cows; total, 201,729. The 
branded or range cows were never fit for, nor used as, milch cows. Of 
the total number of native cows at least 90 per cent, were totally dry, 
and, by reason of age or barrenness, whollj" unfit for milch purposes. 
The other 10 per cent, could not be called good milch cows, and found 
their way to the slaughter houses because of vicious habits or for simi- 
lar reasons. It is not true that cows fit for dairy purposes are slaugh- 
tered in Chicago in any numbers, as they always sell readily to dairy- 
men for more than they would bring for slaughtering purposes. 

It is further claimed that this competition is fast destroying the ex- 
port trade in dairy butter. There must be some mistake in that claim ; 
for, while the statistics show that our exports of cattle, salted beef, tal- 
low, lard, cheese, and butter were considerably less during the first five 
months of 1886 than the first five months of 1885, both in the aggregate 
and in separate items, the statistics also show that of all these articles 
the exports of butter alone during the month of May, 1886, show a 
marked increase over the month of May, 1885, while they show a marked 
decrease in the exi)ortation of all of the cattle and hog products for the 
same time. My statement in relation to these exports may be easily 
verified at the Bureau of Statistics. 

The Chairman. How do you account for that ! 

Mr. Washburn. I am unable to account for it. 

The Chairman. Is it not a commercial fact that butter only goes 
abroad according to the range of the foreign price ; that when butter is 
low in New York City it is shipped abroad, and when it is high it does 
not go abroad at all ? If butter was lower in May, 1885, tlian usual, 
the tendency would be to export it until it reached the export price or 
became too high to export. 

Mr. Washburn. When the batter market is low, of course the export 
trade is larger. The bill under consideration provides that the manu- 
facturer of oleomargarine, butterine, &c., shall be taxed $600, the whole- 
saler $480, and the retailer $48 per year. I would respectfully call the 
attention of the committee to the tax at present required of those engaged 
in rectifying and dealing in liquors, and dealing in tobacco, to wit : 

Rectifier, accordiug to capacity, $100 to |20U 00 

Wholesale liquor dealer 100 00 

Retail liquor dealer 25 00 

Wholesale dealer in malt liquor 50 00 

Retail dealer in malt luiuor 20 00 

Dealer in manufactured tobacco 2 40 

I will also add that the honorable Commissioner of Internal Revenue 
in his report for the fiscal year ending June, 1882, recommended the 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 191 

reduction of all of these taxes (except that of the dealer in manufactured 
tobacco, which has since been reduced from |5 to its present sum) 40 
per cent., and at the same time he said: " The su()ervision over dealers 
in taxable articles, which experience has shown to be necessary iu order 
to fully and fairly collect the taxes from all alike, would still be pre- 
served." So it can be seen that our Bureau of Internal Revenue has, 
at one time at least, considered only the smallest sum of taxation neces- 
sary in order to maintain its supervision over taxable articles. 

We do not want and are not willing that any tax should be placed 
on these food products; we deny the right to tax them until the pro- 
ceeds of such taxation are needed for revenue, and then we will bear 
the burden manfully aud i)ay the tax without defalcation or discount. 
We only want to be let alone to pursue an houest living in an honest 
way. While we can neither see nor understand any legitimate reason 
for taxing these products in any sum, it is still more difficult for us to 
understand why (if indeed any one has conceived any legitimate reason 
for taxing them in any form) it is proposed to make the tax so largely 
in excess of the amount levied upon persons engaged in manufacturing 
and selling liquors and tobacco. We can neither discern sound policy 
nor justice in taxing the manufacture of a wholesome food product 
three or six times as much as a manufacturer of alcoholic drink, nor the 
wholesale dealer in the food four and four-fifths times as much as the 
wholesale dealer iu whisky, nor the retail dealer in the food twice as 
much as the retail dealer in whisky, nor the wholesale dealer in the food 
nine and three-fifths times as much as the wholesale dealer in beer, nor 
the retail dealer in the food twice and two fifths times as much as the 
retail dealer in beer, nor the retail dealer in the food twenty times as 
much as the dealer in tobacco. In short, it is proposed by this bill to 
tax an industry which is supplying a wholesome and almost indispeusa- 
ble food product, and to make that tax very much heavier than the tax 
already levied by the Government upon a calling which, in part at least, 
is stuffing our almshouses, ciammiug our jails, filling our prisons, and 
supplying candidates for the gallows. We cannot satisfactorily ac- 
count for this proposed inconsistency, and fancy that it will be hard in- 
deed for candidates on the stump to explain why it is that a poor man 
must pay 25 to 30 cents per pound for an abominable and unwholesome 
article of dairy butter, when but for the passage of this bill he would 
have buttered his crust for 10 to 12 cents per ijound with a sweet, pure, 
aud wholesome article of oleomargarine. 

A word in relation to the purity and healthfulness of these products. 
I have frequently visited our manufactories of oleo oil, oleonjargarine, 
butterine, &c., and I have always found them cleanly and in good order, 
and have never seen or heard of anything of a suspicious or doubtful 
character being used in or about these works. I recently went through 
one of our factories with a party of some dozen gentlemen from Bos- 
ton and surrounding country, and they all expressed themselves well 
satisfied with the product aud the methods of its manufacture, and de- 
clared themselves " converts to butterine." 

Our manufactories of these products are situated in the town of Lake, 
adjoining the city of Chicago on the south. This township has a pop- 
ulation of 60,000, and it is safe to say that 90 per cent, of them, rich 
and i)oor, eat this imitation butter. I have beon engaged in business 
in that community three and a half years, and have never witnessed 
but one funeral i)rocessiou, and I believe that there is no land under 
the sun where the human race is more prolific, or enjoy better health. 
For the past three mouths I have used oleomargarine exclusively, in 



11)2 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

lieu of dairy butter, and in a liouse-keei)ino;- experieuoe of twenty-five 
years I have never before known what it was to have uniformly good 
butter for that length of time. 

It is claimed by the dairymen that the manufacture of oleomargarine 
and butterine is interfering with their business and rendering it un- 
profitable, and if continued, that their occupation will be gone. While 
we do not admit the existence of such conditions, we are forced to ask, 
what if they do exist ? Is it sound public policy, is it lawful, to tax one 
industry to support and perpetuate another ? 

Paths of commerce change and vast cities go into decay. The march 
of improvement lays a heavy hand upon some industries and builds up 
others. Such has been the history of the world, and such may be the 
result of honest competition. And to quote an eminent lawyer who 
has written well upon this subject, " the dairyman is only having his 
share of the burden of advancing civilization." And we now submit 
that if any legitimate reason exists for taxing and supervising the man- 
ufacture of butter made from beef fat and cream, the same reason ex- 
ists for taxing and supervising the manufacture of butter claimed to 
be made from cream alone. 

Our ihterests are immense and varied. Competition presents many 
rough corners, and we naturally guard with jealous care the reputation 
of our market. For doing this, parties representing the dairy interest 
here have sought to stigmatize us with the name of " stockyard gang." 

But in closing, I wish to assure the committee that the stockyard 
gang never will appear in Washington extending the hand of a mendi- 
cant to Congress, and beseeching them to tax the daily food of every 
man, woman, and child in the land to perpetuate a waning business, to 
use the language of the dairymen, " to set us on our feet." 



STATEMENT OF D. C. WAGNER. 

Mr. Chairman and gentleman of the committee : I came here at the 
instance of the Live Stock Exchange of the city of Chicago with a del- 
egation, of which Elmer Washburn, esq., is chairman, and Hon. Iras 
Coy and myself members. The Livestock Exchange represents an in- 
dustry compared with which the dairy business cannot even claim sec- 
ond place. I shall not attempt to give you comparative figures. These 
you already have, and if *' figures don't lie," you will have had all you 
want to arrive at an intelligent conclusion. I will simply submit that, 
in my humble judgment, you will first have to decide the question upon 
which all other questions relating to this problem hang, namely, are 
each and all the component parts that make up and finish the product 
known and sold as oleomargarine, butterine, &c., wholesome, healthy hu- 
man food f If yes, then I apprehend you will have done all you consist- 
ently can or ought to do as between domestic competitors. If, however, 
on the other hand, you decide that this product is deleterious, injurious, 
or hurtful to health, then, through the health department, condemn and 
prohibit its manufacture and sale. Otherwise let it take its place legit- 
imatelj' in the commercial world on its own merits. 

After the question of healthfulness of the product shall have been es- 
tablished the demand for the consumption of the product will only be 
circumscribed by taste, superinduced or limited, as the case may be, by 
one's necessities. Taxing an internal product, unless it be a luxury, will 
hardly be tolerated in times of profound peace, and I imagine that the 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 193 

friends of this bill would hardly consent to the distinction when applied 
to this product. Personally, I never expect to habitually use oleomar- 
garine or butterine in my familj", not, however, because of any scru- 
ples or prejudice in the matter, but simply because I have farmer friends 
who su{)ply me, and have for many years, with the old-fashioned home- 
made butter, churned in the old sining-house manner. But there have 
been times in the past when, for various reasons, we failed to get our 
glorious old-fashioned butter in time, and then has come our discontent. 
On one of these occasions, not many months since, I asked the butler 
or steward of a restaurant, where I have been taking one meal per day 
for years past, where he got his butter ; it was good, nearly, if not 
quite, as good as my old country butter; in fact, he always had good 
butter, even before butterine was made. He answered by saying it was 
butterine. Well, I did not then believe him, but upon investigation 
the story of the butler was duly corroborated, aud not only so, but I 
found I had been eating it once a day for months. 1 am quite sure you 
will ask me whether I still like it as well as 1 did before I knew the 
name of it. Well, I don't care to answer that question directly, but will 
say that whenever I get short on my old-fashioned country home-made 
article, I shall buy this much-abused butterine in preference to the so- 
called dairv butter commonlv on sale in the Chicago market. 



STATEMENT OF GEORGE W. SLADE. 

I am a member of the firm of Allen, Slade & Co., of Fall River, Mass., 
wholesale grocers. Tlie tirm has been in existence a little over twenty 
years. We deal largely in cream butter and oleomargarine and but- 
terine. We commenced the sale of butterine about twelve or thirteen 
years ago, when it was first introduced into New England. Our busi- 
ness in these goods, at first small, has gradually increased. Our city 
has a population of about 60,000, 17,000 of which are cotton factory 
operatives, who, with their families, number 35,000 to 40,000 persons. 
These ])eople consume oleomargarine almost exclusively. The goods 
are sold in 10- pound tubs, with the full knowledge on the part of the 
consumer of their character. These tubs are all marked and sold in 
accordance with the Massachusetts law, being stamped with the word 
" oleomargarine " or " butterine " u])on the top and sides in one-half 
inch Gothic letters. 

One of our largest retail grocers constantly advertises these goods 
under their true name in the daily papers, price $1.10 per 10 pound tub. 
I have never heard any complaint as to the character of the goods or 
of any sickness occasioned by their use. 

We should regard it as a calamity to the poor i)eople if they were to 
be taxed upon an article which now costs them all they are able to pay 
for it. Fall River is in coiupetition with the world in the manufacture 
of cotton goods, and we should regard any tax upon a food product, 
used largely by our operatives, as being quite as detrimental to our 
interests as a manufactuiing city as a tax would be upon any of our 
improved machinery. We are stockholders in nearly all of the large 
cotton mills of Fall River. 
17007 OL 13 



194 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 



STATEMENT OF WILLIAM B. CLARK. 

I am of the firm of Clark Bros., of Worcester, Mass., wholesale pro- 
duce dealers. We make a specially of bandliug" oleomargarine and have 
done so for seven years. So far as I know, the Massachusetts law is 
generally complied with. 

I recently saw in the hands of a party engaged in collecting oleomar- 
garine tubs from families for packing lard 01 empty 10-pound tubs, all 
of which had regular oleomargarine stencils upon them as required by 
statute. About three-quarters of our sales reach the consumers in the 
original marked packages, mostly lO-ponnd tubs. 

Consumers of these goods in Worcester and vicinity do not altogether 
belong to the poorer classes, though the larger number of them do. I 
am personally acquainted with several farmers in our neighborhood 
who sell their milk and do not make batter, who regularly purchase 
butterine to use upon their tables. 

Our firm is interested in several creameries in Vermont, and we have 
not seen that the sale of oleomargarine interferes with or lowers the 
price of fresh made creamery butter. 



STATEMENT OF J. MERRILL CURRIER. 

I am a member of the firm of J. M. Currier & Co., of Lawrence, Mass. 
Our business has been that of retail dealers in groceries and provisions 
since 1850. Among the articles which we keep for sale are the best 
grades of butter, and within the last five years we have dealt in oleo- 
margarine. We commenced the sale of these goods because our cus- 
tomers demanded them, and because if we did not supply them we 
found that they would goto our competitors, so that we thus lost their 
trade for other goods. We have found the call for these goods to con- 
stantly increase, and that they give general satisfaction. We have less 
complaint from them than from our cream butter of prime quality. We 
account for this from its uniform character and quality. We have never 
heard that any person was made sick by it or that it was unhealthful. 
Many of our customers say they prefer it to creamery butter, which 
costs much more. Our customers for this article are principally labor- 
ing peojile with families, and I understand they use it for the purpose 
of saving money with which they are able to procure other necessities. 

The law in our State, so far as I know, is very generally observed, and 
is thought to be a sufiicient protection against imposition. Every one 
who buys oleomargarine at our store knows what he is buying, and no 
one gets it unless he calls for it. 

If a person calls for butter he gets butter, and if he calls for oleomar- 
garine he gets that. We desire and intend to continue our business in 
this way. We do not wish to be obliged to say that the price has gone 
up 5 or 10 cents per pound, or that we cannot furnish it, because the 
Government has ])utsuch a tax upon it, while the corresponding article 
on the rich man's table is exempted from this burden, and all for the 
benefit of those who are better off than those upon whom the real biwdeu 
would come. So far as I know, the feeling in the community in which 
I live is unanimous in the opinion that any tax would be unjust and bear 
heavily upon those who are the least able to sustain it. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 195 



STATEMENT OF T. C. EASTMAN. 

Gentlemen : I have heard the statement of Mr. G. H. Webster, of 
Chicago, before your committee. So far as it concerns the fatty product 
of cattle, it is in the main correct. I have been in the business of 
handling and slaughtering cattle for thirty years, and for the past few 
years have handled over 100,000 yearly, which have been used mostly 
in foreign markets. My c]nnion is, that any tax on oleomargarine would 
materially aft'ect the price of the i)roducts of all beef cattle sold in the 
United States, and that the amount so aftected would fall indirectly on 
the producer. In my opinion, therefore, to tax the cattle growers of 
the Middle and Western States by tlie levying of a duty upon a com- 
pleted product derived from cattle would be a very unjust thing to do, 
and if rightly understood would not be done. 

There is already ample evi<lence of discontent and fear upon the part 
of American cattle growers, developed by the now uucertain condition 
of the beef trade of this country and of Europe. 

Values of all beef products have greatly depreciated, partly caused 
by the growing belief that action on the part of Congress relating to 
the sale of butter substitutes will still further decrease the profits of the 
cattle business and the general adjustment of lower values of all food 
products. A further cause for the decliue in cattle is seen in the pres- 
ent attitude of foreign buyers of beef oil, who, prompted by the general 
talk of national legislation, are at present refraining from purchases of 
oleo oil in the expectation of soon beiug able to replenish their supplies 
at much lower prices than have usually prevailed. 

Calculated upon the average value of beef fat derived from the class 
of cattle regularly slaughtered at my establishment and which is util- 
ized in the manufacture of oleomargarine oil, 1 am led to believe that 
if this industry is interfered with in the way proposed, beef cattle will 
be depreciated in value from $3 to $3.50 per head. 

The committee then adjourned until Friday, June 18, 1886, at 10 
o'clock a. m. 



Washington, D. C, Friday^ June 18, 1886. 

The committee met pursuant to adjournment. 

The Chairman. We will resume our hearing in regard to this ques- 
tion. I understand that Mr. Holden, of Kansas City, desires to ad- 
dress the committee. 



STATEMENT OF HOWARD M. HOLDEN. 

Mr. Howard M. Holden, of Kansas City, then addressed the com 
raittee. 

I will consume but a very few moments of your time, and will state at 
the outset that what I have to say grows out of the belief on my own 
part and those for whom 1 speak, that this legislation is aimed at the 
suppression of this oleomargarine industry, a belief which we think is 
warranted by the degree of taxation that is sought to be enforced 
against it, and by the language used by those who have been prominent 
in urging such legislation. 



196 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

I was very much griititied yesterday to observe that our friends on 
the other side seemed to have come dowu from their high horse of sup- 
pression and are talking more now of regulation, and I hope that they 
may advance in time to a due appreciation of the old maxim of " live 
and let live." 

I api)ear l)efore yon at the request of the Live Stock Exchange of 
Kansas City, of which i)lace I am, and for twenty years have been, a cit- 
izen, to represent its interests and those of its large constituency in the 
tributary country in the pending legislation on the subject of oleomar- 
garine. 

I am also largely personally engaged in the business of raising beef 
cattle and fattening them for market, and I also appear in behalf of my- 
self and of others similarly situate<l. 

You are doubtless aware that Kansas City is one of the largest pri- 
mary live stock markets in the United States. In the year 1885, 
2,358,813 hogs and 506,025 cattle were received for sale in the stock- 
yards of that city. These animals came from Western Missouri, Kan- 
sas, Southwestern Iowa, Southern Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, 
Arkansas, Texas, and other sections, and the trade is rapidly increas- 
ing. It will, therefore, be readily appreciated that whatever tends to 
aflect the values of cattle and hogs, must be a subject of prime interest 
to our i)eople. 

In addition to this, the manufacture and preparation for consumption 
of the various products of such live stock, is a leading industry in Kan- 
sas City, giving employment to thousands of men. 

It is calculated that by the utilization of th<= ingredients of oleomar- 
garine and butterine, the value of beef cattle is enhanced from $2 to $4 
per head according to the degree of fatuess, and the value of hogs from 
12 cents to 15 cents per head over what the animal would be worth if 
these ingredients were thrown back to be sold merely as lard and tal- 
low — the market value of the latter, in consequence of competition of 
cotton seed oil and other substitutes, being but one third to one-half 
that of former years. 

The interest, therefore, which I represent to-day, simply with respect 
to the enhanced value of cattle and hogs received for sale at Kansas 
City, is that of nearly $2,000,000 per annum, in the maintenance of oleo- 
margarine and butterine as articles of food and commerce. 

Behind this body for which I speak is that great constituency of 
farmers and stock raisers upon whom this threatened depreciation 
must eventually fall. The cattle and the hogs that daily appear in our 
various stock-yards for sale are gathered up from thousands of farmers, 
and the money they sell for is distributed among the masses of the peo- 
ple. Every part of the animal is as truly a farm product as is butter or 
cheese, and whenever any new and legitimate use is devised for any prod- 
uct of the farm whereby the market for that product is enlarged and 
enhanced, a proportionate benefit accrues to every farmer who raises 
such product for sale. We claim that such benefit, aggregating many 
millions of dollars, is constantly being distributed among the farmers 
and beef raisers of the country as a consequence of the use of portions 
of the beef and hog product in the manufacture of oleomargarine and 
butterine. We make no apology for opposing discrimination by Con- 
gress against these articles and against the live-stock interests which 
we represent. 

We would have no moral right, for the sake of any pecuniary advan- 
tage, to seek the countenance or protection of law or of public sentiment, 
of an article that is deleterious to public health, but we claim that the 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 197 

articles in question are healthful and wholesome food products, of prac- 
tically the same constituent I'lemeuts as good dairy butter, and, by rea- 
son of their cheapness, affording to the masses of the people, an accept- 
able substitute for butter far superior to tbe commoner grades, and at 
much less cost than the highest grades of butter which multitudes of the 
j)eople are not able to buy. 

In proof of these assertions we point to the long array of certificates 
by leading chemists, food inspectors, boards of health, and other au- 
thorities of eruiuent repute, many of which have already been brought 
to the notice of the committee. 

If single instances of unwholesomeness are quoted with a view to 
create a prejudice against these articles generally, we ask of what food 
product might not the same be alleged in single or occasional cases? 
Certainly butter itself would not be exempt. We assert that as a class 
and in general the articles are i)ure, wholesome, and clean, and this the 
dairymen i)ractically admit when they charge that they displace their 
products from the market ; for if these articles have such character as 
their enemies allege, how can they stand comparison and competition 
with good butter? Even such (concealment of their true character by 
selling them under the name of butter, as is charged, could not avail ; 
but by a ^isit to the market house right here in Washington one can 
see these articles for sale under tlieir true name, and selling largely on 
their merits, and have abundant o[)i)ortunity of testing their merits. 
Butterine can be jjurchased there that is quite as cleanly, as palatable, 
and as wholesome as the high grades of dairy butter. 

If, then, as is claimed, these articles be legitimate and wholesome 
food products (and their friends invite proof to the contrary), what 
ground can there be for the proposed legislation ? Certainly not for 
revenue purposes, for the Treasury of the country is already full to over- 
flowing. 

The object sought is plainly that of their destruction, because of their 
alleged interference with the butter interest, and in order to obtain 
jurisdiction for such purpose, Congress is asked to make it a revenue 
bill. 

But if, in the progress of events, one legitimate home industry does 
happen to impinge upon another, is that any ground for legislative in- 
terference f should not such things be left to the operation of those 
laws of trade which in the long run adjust to themselves and to the 
right, with unerring faithfulness and certain sweep, the relations of 
men and things? 

If the contrary doctrine is to be indulged by setting a precedent in 
this instance, where shall the end be? How soon before the sugar 
planter of Louisiana may be demanding of Congress that i)roscriptive 
legislation be enacted against the sorghum and beet sugar of the North; 
or the swine-raisers of the Northwest, that cotton-seed oil be proscribed 
because some of it tinds its way into the manufacture of lard, and the 
revenue department of the Government take under its charge every 
slaughterhouse and lard-rendering establishment in the country; or 
the corn-raisers, that oil-cake be proscribed, because, to some extent, 
it takes the place of corn in feeding cattle; or the coal-miners, that the 
natural gas wells be destroyed because of injury to the coal interests? 
And so on ad inji)iitum, until, with the false i)retense of raising revenue, 
every new or competing interest would be throttled by its rival that 
might seek to exercise a larger political influence over Congress, and 
until the revenue department of the Governaient would be converted 
into a vast inquisition, the real object of which would be not to raise 



198 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

an honest and constitutional revenue, but to torture into extinction the 
rising industries of the country. 

We believe that Congress will pause before settling such a dangerous 
precedent and before embarking upon such an uncertain sea. 

The plain legal proposition that, even were the article as bad as its 
enemies claim, its regulation belongs to the police power of the States 
and not to Congress, 1 will not discuss. 

It is not true, as is claimed, that on the one side are a few manufactu- 
rers only, while on the other side are the many who are interested in 
the dairy interest. If such were tlie case, we think Congress could not 
rightfully discriminate against a single citizen for the benefit of the 
imany. But there is not a farmer or stock-raiser in the land who mark- 
ets a fatted beef who does not receive additional value therefor be- 
cause of the industry which this proposed legislation seeks to suppress ; 
and the number of such is doubtless as large or larger than they who 
are said to be adversely affected. If their voice has not been so largely 
heard, it is because they are not organized and have had little notice of 
this assault upon their interests, while the advocates of this measure 
are thoroughly organized and prepared beforehand for the purpose, 
and actively seek by in<lucing petitions and correspondence to impress 
Congress and make it appear that the predominant interest of the peo- 
ple is on the side of such legislation. 

We claim that, even if the effects of this new industry were as disas- 
trous upon the dairy interest as is alleged, that would furnish no ground 
for the interposition of Congress in suppressing the legitimate industry 
that might be responsible for such effect. In the onward march of in- 
vention and of human affairs such conflicts and disturbances of previ- 
ous relations and interests are continually occurring in every direction. 
Hence it seems superfluous to discuss whether or nut the representa- 
tions upon this point be true. But it may be observed, in passing, that 
many of these statements are largely overrun. 

For instance, it is said that, in consequence of this competition, the 
price of milch cows, during recent years, has declined $10 per head, 
and that in 1885 about 300,000 cows were slaughtered in Chicago. 

Fairness should have led the parties making these representations to 
have stated how much the prices of other classes of cattle, and of hogs 
and other live stock and of commodities generally, have declined in the 
same time; such a general and comparative exhibit as would show that 
a fully proportionate decline has been experienced in the prices of beef 
and all other grades of cattle and other livestock, and of the staples of 
life generally. Every well informed person knows this to be true. As 
to the drainage of cows into the Chicago market for slaughtering, it is 
known that between 1880 and 1883 there was a great speculative move- 
ment in cattle and consequent rise in prices, hundreds of foreign and 
home companies embarking in the business in the West. The mania 
was such that of all classes of cattle the most <Ufficult to purchase was 
female breeding stock. This inevitably tended to an overdoing of the 
business, and, as has often been illustrated in almost every line of trade, 
to subsequent depression. A large portion of these cows which have 
been finding the Chicago market are of the surplus stock from the far 
western ranges where no dairy interest exists. 

The receipts of cattle of all classes in Chicago are about 2,000,000 
head annually. One-half of thecattle in the country are females. Every 
farmer will admit that, whatever the value of milch cows for dairy use, 
a due regard for their age, breeding qualities, and condition, constantly 
requires liim to make selections from his herd for the beef market. Ou 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 199 

this I speak from personal experieuce. If oleomargarine were uuknowu, 
the receipts of cows for slaughtering in the great live-stock market of 
Chicago would be large and incessant from the causes I have stated, 
and, in the mind of every man who is informed and experienced in these 
matters, it is at least a concealment of the truth for the advocates of 
this legislation to make these statements and leave it to be inferred that 
the oleomargarine industry is alone responsible. 

A leading friend of the bill gives figures to show that the price of 
butter has declined from 19 cents in 1881 to 15 cents in 1886, and he at- 
tributes the depreciation to the competition of oleomargarine. This 
decline does not exceed and is in strict harmony with the general de- 
cline in values within that period, as we shall be glad to show if the 
committee desires. On the otherhand, it is shown that the price of the 
best grades of butter is not lower than before these butter substitutes 
were known, the makers of them being large buyers of creamery but- 
ter for mixing with the other ingredients. AVe do not believe that good 
butter will ever be disjdaced or depreciated by any butter substitute. 

A list of the patents issued for the manufacture of artificial butter 
has been made, showing a great variety of compounds. Every one 
knows what a multitude of impractical patents that are never worked 
under, issue from the Patent Office. The oleomargarine of to-day is 
not made under any patent and is not composed of the articles indicated 
by these theoretical butter-makers, but is made from a few simple and 
natural true butter ingredients, which are none the less so because they 
come from the animal in another form. 

I do not pretend to speak for the consumers of butter, but it is a no- 
ticeable fact that they do not ask for this legislation. It is also notice- 
able that the petitions of the dairymen, upon which the legislation may 
be supposed to be based, ask for the suppression of the industry. Can 
that be an honest revenue bill which seeks to suppress the article 
taxed 1? The proposition involves a paradox, for how can revenue re- 
sult from an article the making of which is suppressed b^' the tax ? 

Section 14 of the pending bill provides that the Commissioner may 
decide whether any substance made in imitation or resemblance of but- 
ter afid intended for human consumption contains ingredients delete- 
rious to the public health. And section 15 says that — 

All oleomarjjjariue intended for human cousumption, which contains ingredients ad- 
judged as hereinbefore provided, to be deleterious to the public health, sball be for- 
feited to the United S ates. 

Aside from any legal aspects, we can see but two grounds, in the 
reasonableness of things, for this legislation. One is, the need of rev- 
enue, and evidently that is not the object sought. The other is the sup- 
pression of an article that is deleterious to the public health. Do not 
the sections of the bill that I have referred to, by fair implication, con- 
cede that, in general, oleomargarine is not deleterious ! And do not 
they contemplate that only in occasional instances, as in the case with 
almost every ar*:icle of food, the Commissioner may find some of it del- 
eterious ? 

We think that such is ^he only reasonable view. The bill professes 
to deal with the article as one that enters largely into the commerce of 
the country, and provides the machinery for its taxation, and contem- 
plates its continuance on a large scale and not its extinction ; but those 
portions, if any, are to be forfeited which are found deleterious to tlie 
public health. This recognizes that okuinargarine may not be delete- 
rious; and it would seem impossible that while treating of the article as 



200 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

a Tbiug of commerce, and producing' regulations for its liaiidliiig by 
wbolesalers and retailers after it hHspaia the tax and after it has passed 
from tbe surveillance of the revenue agents, tbe framers of the bill 
contemplated a wholesale and general confiscation of the article by 
the million pounds on the ground that it is «// deleterious. 

If, then, as the bill itself would seem to recognize, the article be not 
deleterious generally, why shonid it all be so legislated against because 
of possible occasional deleterious qualities? Why should it thus be 
singled out from the great number of other food products into which 
deleterious elements are believed to be introduced? 

And if in the consciences of men having to do with this bill the object 
be not to raise a revenue, and if, as the bill on its face confesses, the 
article is not deleterious, as we think we have shown, and therefore not 
TO be supi)ressed, then what can be the object of its promoters but that 
of its extermination, sim]>ly because of its alleged conflict with another 
article of trade? 

On behalf, then, gentlemen, of the beef-cattle interest of tbe section 
I represent, which interest includes in its scope hnn<lreds of thousands 
of people, we ask of Congress not to i)ass this bill, believing that neither 
in tbe character of the article itself, in the predominant interest of the 
peo])le, in sound i)ublic policy, or in law, can any justification of it be 
found. 

The Chairman. You give the figures as to the amouut of live stock 
marketed in Kansas City. Can you give tbe figures of tbe number 
slaughtered there each year? 

Mr. HoLDEN. I am not prepared to do so; I have not those figures 
with me; I could only estimate. 

The Chairman. It is not material, except that tbe value of tlie fat 
for oleo or for neutral lard in Kansas City would be only of those ani- 
mals that were killed there; that is to say, those that went on to Chi- 
cago and were killed there were included in Mr. Webster's statement of 
the number slaughtered in Chicago and tbe value of the oleo tat and 
lard for tbe manufacture of neutral. It is not material, but I did not 
know but wha^i you might have tbe exact figures. 

Mr. HoLDEN. I have not tbe figures, but I know a great mauj^ are 
slaughtered there; it is a large slaughtering i)oint. 

The Chairman. You object to the taxing of this product upon the 
ground that it is a wholesome product, and therefore ought not to be 
legislated against in favor of anything else. What objection, if any, is 
there to laws which would compel this material to be sold to tbe con- 
sumer at all times for what it is, under its true name and label ? 

Mr. HoLDEN. I do not see any objectitm to that. 1 think the princi- 
j)le involve in that proposition is a correct one, but it is equally as ap- 
plicable to a hundred other articles of food as to this. 

Tbe Chairman. You think if oleomargarine and butteriue were sold 
under their own names, eventually they would make their way and be- 
come regular articles of consumption ? 

Mr. HoLDEN. 1 believe they would ; I have every reason to believe 
so. I was led to investigate this matter on my own account within tbe 
last two mouths, and I am led to that conclusion. 

The Chairman. Have you any experience in the manufacture of oleo- 
margarine "? 

Mr. HoLDEN. No, sir; I have not. 

The Chairman. You made a statement in regard to its cleanliness, 
and I thought perhaps you bad personal knowledge of its manufacture. 

Mr. HoLDEN. No, sir. I will say that I base that statement not on 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 201 

personal experience but, as is done in regard to most of the attairs of 
life, from the conclusions we come to from what we consider reliable 
evidence. 

Senator Blair. Just one question: In speaking of the different 
grades of oleomargarine, is it a fact that the improved or higher grades 
of oleomargarine are rendered so simply fiom a larger admixture of 
dairy product, a larger i)roi)ortiou of dairy product? 

Mr. HoLDEN. I understand that to be the case. 

Senator Blair. There is no other element that enters into the in- 
creased value of the higher grades of the oleomargarine? 

Mr. HoLDEN. In addition to the value of the oleo itselfl 

Senator Blair. They make an ordinary quality of oleomargarine and 
a good article ; that is, there are higher grades, are there not? 

Mr. HoLDEN. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. 1 have gathered from the testimony that the increased 
value of the oleomargarine over this average or good quality is pro- 
duced by a larger adujixture or larger proportion of the dairy product. 

Mr. HoLDEN. I understand that to be the case. 

Senator Jones. But he says that he has no i)ractical experience. 

Senator Blair. He says that he has investigated it for two mouths. 

Mr. HoLDEN. I have in a general way, but I cannot speak as an ex- 
pert. 

Senator Blair. I would like to ask that question of a manufacturer. 

The Chairman. That has been answered. Mr. Webster, of Armour 
& Co., answered that by coming back and qualifying his statement. 
He says they have a lower grade aud that they do use a cheaper kind 
of fat than the kind which is used for oleomargarine. Mr. Webster came 
back and corrected l)is statement to that effect. 

Mr. HoLDEN. I will add, gentlemen, something that I know ; that 
our manufacturers in Kansas City are very large buyers of creamery 
butter and of milk from the creameiies and dairies in the neighborhood. 

The Chairman. Do you happen to know what the market price of 
this raw fat is which is used for the manufacture of oleo ? 

Mr. HoLDEN. I cannot state as to that, the raw fat before it is ren- 
dered. I have noticed the price of tallow. 

The Chairman. But I speak of the raw fat of the animal as it goes 
to the oleouiargarine factory. 

Mr. HoLDEN. I should not like to state as to that. 



STATEMENT OF G. W. SIMPSON. 

Mr. G. W. Simpson, of Boston, nextaddressed the committee. 

Mr. Chairman and Senators, I am here as a manufacturer and dealer 
in genuine creamery butter made from the cream of the milch cow. 

The Chairman. Please state your residence. 

Mr. Simpson. I live in Boston, but our creameries are principally^ 
located in Western Iowa. I also am presidont of the Bay State Live 
Stock Comi)any, a cattle company located in Western ]!^ebraska and 
Wyoming, owning about 90,000 liead of cattle and about 400,000 acres 
of land. It might seem at first that my interests were somewhat an- 
tagonistic, but I do not consi<ler them so, for this reason: I do not rec- 
ognize oleo or butteriue as any competitor for fine butter, and I base 
that statement on this ground: 

Some ten years ago 1 made my first trip West with a view of trying 
to secure a tine grade of butter, something better than the average 



202 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

dairyman in Vermout, New York, aud New Eogland was making at 
that time. I arrived in Chicago and bought a little of what was called 
Western butter, a very fair article, and on the express label it was 
marked Mouticello, Iowa. I thought that was a pretty good place to go 
to, and I went there and made an arrangement with a gentleman, who 
is now dairy commissioner of the State of Iowa, to ship some dairy 
butter which he purchased there. Shortly after that we decided to en- 
ter the creamery business, and " Number One " was erected. We have 
followed this business to the present time, until we own and operate 
thirty creameries, which I understand is the largest number owned and 
operated by any one house in the world. And at Ihe present time, with 
the flush of feed and the large amount of butter that is being made, we 
are sold ahead, and for the greater portion of the entire winter we were 
unable to in any manner supply our trade, as I can vouch for and prove 
by friends I have here. 

I do not recognize oleo to be as much of an injury to the dairy inter- 
est as many of my friends, for this reason, that there are a certain class 
of people who make a cheap grade of dairy butter, and to-day the price 
of low grades of dairy butter in Western Iowa and iti Eastern Nebraska 
averages from 4 to 8 cents a pound. This can be verified by prices cur- 
rent, which can be obtained at any time from Omaha, Chicago, or New 
York. On the other hand, in the eastern part of Iowa, where we are 
located, we pay more than double that for the butter in the milk before 
it is manufacture*!, and return the skimmed milk for food for hogs aud 
calves. In that locality they do not destroy their calves, as they do in 
New York and Vermout, as soon as they are born into the world, be- 
cause the milk is worth more money. They have their stock industry, 
and they have their hog industry, and they feed them from the product 
of the cow after selling the cream. And any one who will go to Jones 
County, or inquire of the assistant dairy commissioner, who lives there, 
will be convinced that that is a prosperous locality at the prcvsent time, 
and has been increasing rapidly in wealth during the last ten years. 
Last year we paid for butter in the milk 25 cents a pound. On account 
of getting so small an amount of milk as we did it cost us to manufact- 
ure it nearly 10 cents a pound. For instance, we were only getting 
about 1,000 pounds a day, and that would make 40 pounds of butter, 
which at 10 cents a pound would only make $4, and $4 will fail to run 
any creamery a single day, even if there is only one man employed 
in it. 

The Chairman. That was the cost during that time ! 

Mr. Simpson. Say about three months; maybe a little more than 
that. 

The Chairman. What does it cost to make it in the flush season of 
grass. 

Mr. Simpson. About 16 cents. 

The Chairman. And the manufacture aside from the cost of the milk? 

Mr. Simpson. About 3 cents a pound, and that includes the package, 
the tub, the salt, and color. We color our butter the j'ear round in or- 
der to make it i)erfect in form. The substance we use is anuatto i)rin- 
cipally, a little creamery butter, and a little salt. I have here a copy 
taken from the circular of the Boston Produce Exchange, giving the 
prices for 1880 of several articles of food, and I think this is evidence 
that butter has been affected the least during the past few years of any 
article of food. I notice — I hardly know why. except that I came from 
Boston, and that is the home for baked beans — that beans are put down 
first on this list, and the price of them in 1881 per bushel was $2.80; 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 



203 



in] 885, $1.65; a lower percentage of 411^. Lard in 1881 was 11.98 
cents; in 1885 it was 7^ cents. The list I have here shows the per- 
centage of redaction, and with the permission of the committee I will 
make it a part of my statement. 

The paper submitted by Mr. Simpson is as follows : 

Statement made from Boston Produce Exchange reports of 1881 and 1885, showing the aver- 
age price of several food products in the above-named years. 



Articles. 



1881. 



1885. 



Pea beans per bushel.. | $2 80 j $1 C5 

Lard perpound.. Hi^alj 07i 

Clear pork (Boston) per barrel.. I 21 16 1 13 77 

Flour (winter wheat) do 1 8 04 5 55^5 

Cheese per pound . . '. I2j\*„ I lOy^j 

Bestdairy. do.-.j 27| 1 22 

Best creamery "^o -..| 31 J 26 

Plate beef. . . ' per barrel. . 14 21 13 21 



Decrease. 



Per cent. 
38f 

mi 

301 
19f 
19fV 



The Chairman. Where did you obtain those fignres ? 

Mr. Simpson. From the circular of the Boston Produce Exchange. 

The Chairman. If they are not more correct in other things than they 
are respecting the average price of cheese, they are not worth anything. 
I know in regard to that. 

Mr. Simpson. The chairman of the Produce Exchange is present, Mr. 
Chapin, and I think he will vouch for this statement. It is copif^d from 
the circular of which Mr. Chapin has charge. We take the market re- 
port of Boston, supposing it to be correct. 

The Chairman. What is the price of creamery butter in Boston now ? 

Mr. Simpson. Do you mean the price of creamery butter as we sell it 
to grocers ? 

The Chairman. No ; I mean the market price. 

Mr. Simpson. I would suppose that the market price would be about 
19 cents, the average market i)rice. 

The Chairman. Do you sell your creamery butter from Iowa in the 
open market at ordinary market prices? 

Mr. Simpson. No, sir ; we have a special trade for it ; I am not quot- 
ing our prices; I will do so if you desire it. But the average ])rice, 
from the best information I can get, of the finest Northern creameries in 
New York or Boston would be, I think, about 19 cents. 

I claim that the sale of the dairy products of our country has been, 
in Great Britain, injured very materially by the sending of a poor grade 
of butter to that market. In former years we were compelled to buy, 
throughout the season, dairy butter which would come into use each 
week, and we would select the best quality and as a rule the poorer 
grades were set one side to be worked ott' as best we might. When it 
came s|>ring-time we found we had no outlet for them and we would 
ship them to Liver])ool, and the^' were sold as American butter. But 
on account of the oleo, the fresh flavored oleo which they claim to make 
over on the other side (and I dare say they make a very good article of 
goods), it has become impossible for us to find a market for anything 
on that side except the finest grade of creamery butter. 

I do not claim that it is any advantage to the farmer to make poor 
butter. I claim that cream, properly handled, will produce a fine ar- 
ticle of butter the year round, and every day in tlie year, and because 
the farmer who has been making his butter and selling it at from 3 to 



204 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

5 and 8 cents a pound is being driven out of that business, it is no in- 
jury to bini, but rather a benefit. I claim that the creamery system 
which is now practiced in this country and the cheese-factory system 
bave been of great vakie to the dairyman and the consumer. But, on 
the other hand, I doubt if they could have reached their present stand- 
ard, if they could have accomplished as much as they have, had it not 
been for the oleo which has been taking the place so largely of the 
cheap grade of butter that tiie farmer was obliged to sell his milk to 
the creamery because the people would not buy or consume his cheap 
dairy butter. The shippers will buy fresh creamery at the present 
time, and it is about the only article in the dairy line which they are 
willing to buy. 

Admitting that this oleo is a healthy article of food, I see no reason 
why the people should not have it, those who cannot afford to buy fine 
butter. Last winter our prices of butter were beyond the reach of men 
in ordinary circumstances. 

The Chairman. Do you refer to the price of it iu your creameries or 
the general i)rice ? 

Mr. Simpson. The general price. I thiuk my friends will bear me 
out iu the statement that the prices averaged about 35 cents at whole- 
sale for along time, and I can prove it by the price current. I know 
our price for milk ran an average for three months, and we vary the 
price of milk on the market from July. I am satisfied that the retail 
price of fine butter could not have been below 40 cents in Boston or 
New York for at least three months, and I think it was a little more 
than that. 

The Chairman. You buy your milk based on the market price for 
butter ? 

Mr. Simpson. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. Then if butter goes down as it is now to 18 cents or 
even to 16 cents, as a good deal of it is, you would not be the loser at all ! 

Mr. Simpson. We would not be except in this way 

The Chairman. It would all come out of the farmer who furnishes 
the milk"? 

Mr. Simpson. No, sir. We make out prices at the first of the month 
as a rule. Take the month of April ; Me paid more for milk during that 
month than we (;ould afford to, because wlien we started in in the month 
the price was higher and declined. It was the same in May. We paid 
above the market value for milk in April and May. On the other hand, • 
we shall ])robably offset that, which is only fair, when the advance comes 
in the fall of the year. 

The Chairman. But your interest in the buying of the milk would 
not injure you, because you are getting your price on the value of the 
butter iu the market? 

Mr. Simpson. Yes ; just as the manufacturer regulates his price on 
the value of the product which he uses. 

The Chairman. But if you were to use the milk and cow, what then? 

Mr. Simpson. That is further back than we wish to go. 

The Chairman. Very well ; but you gave it as your opinion that the 
reason our export of butter had fallen off" so largely was that poor but- 
ter had been sent abroad, and therefore had injured the market for 
American butter. Is it not true that butter does not go abroad at all 
until it reaches a certain price at which it will be taken by the foreign 
market, and that the price is the entire regulator of the matter? 

Mr. Simpson. To a certain extent; but when we had under the old 
system no outlet for our cheap butter in the spring of the year, there 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 205 

was nothing else for us to do but to ship it, muiI get rid of it at the best 
price we could get. 

The Chairman. It went abroad for the best price you could get, 
without regard to cost, as any surplus does ? 

Mr. Simpson. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. Do you not think the manufacture of oleomargarine 
and the export of oleomargarine has also had a tendency to depress the 
price abroad f 

Mr. Simpson. Yes, sir ; I dare say it has. 

Senator Jones. Bo you mean of all grades, or that low grade of but- 
ter simply ? 

Mr. Simpson. I think possibly it may have had a tendency to reduce 
the price of all grades to some extent, but fine butter has been affected 
but very little indeed. 

The Chairman. According to the reports of the markets, particu- 
larly the New York market, I noticed this morning that the best cream- 
ery butter from New York State or from Iowa is quoted at 18 cents a 
pound. Now do you not think the large amount of butterine and oleo- 
margarine made and sold in the country has reduced the price of that 
dairy butter very materially at the present time ? 

Mr. Simpson. If you mean creamery butter, I do not think so. I 
think that in 1879 butter averaged at as low a price as to-day. 

The Chairman. I am speaking of the price to-day. Do you think if 
there was no olemargarine or butterine made, that fine creamery butter 
would be sold in New York to-day for 18 cents a pound"? 

Mr. Simpson. It might be. But I say the purchasing power of a dol- 
lar was never so great as to-day. In 1879 I claim butter was sold as low 
as it is this year, and that was before butterine came into use to any 
extent. 

The Chairman. I understood you to say that, in your judgment, the 
manufacture and use of oleomargarine and butterine had not materially 
reduced the price of creamery butter? 

Mr. Simpson. I so stated for the reason that we were able to sell 
creamery butter during the winter months at 38 cents a pound, and 
that is high enough, and that is the time when they use the most of the 
butterine. In the face of all this, when they were making so large an 
amount of butterine and buying creamery butter to put into it to make 
a fine grade, I say in the face of that there was a high price being 
asked and received, and milk was very short for fine butter for weeks. 

Senator Blair. Is it not a fact that what you call '*fine butter" is a 
luxury of life rather than one of its necessaries ? 

Mr. Simpson. Yes, sir; at certain seasons of the year. 

Senator Blair. And it depends on purchasers who know very little 
of the ordinary struggles tor life I 

Mr. Simpson. Y'es; the finest of it. 

The Chairman. What do you mean by a " fine " butter ; do you mean 
creamery made butter 1 

Mr. Simpson. No, sir ; not all creamery made butter. 

The Chairman. Do you mean fine butter, then, simply a fancy or gilt- 
edge grade that is sold to people at 75 cents or a dollar a pound ? 

Mr. Simpson. No, sir. 

The Chairman. I supposed not. I supposed you meant by fine but- 
ter a creamery butter ? 

Mr. Simpson. No, sir ; I mean more than that, an extra creamery but- 
ter grade in New York and Boston markets, which is quoted as extra 
creamery butter. 



206 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Senator Blair. What would tbat sell for at retail ? 

Mr, Simpson. At about 25 to 27 cents, the retail jobber getting about 
5 cents, and the retailer 2 cents. 

Senator Blair. I am speaking of fine butter. I think you mentioned 
38 cents. 

Mr. Simpson. But that was last winter. Butter is just about 50 per 
cent, lower now than it was last winter, and it is no unusual thing for 
it to be that much lower June, for that was the case before oleo came 
in. 

Senator Blair. Generally is much butter manufactured in the sum- 
mer? 

Mr. Simpson. No, sir ; I would say not. I would not suppose they 
would try to niake any of the higher grades, and I do not think they 
do. 

Senator Blair. Why not? 

Mr. Simpson. Because butter is so cheap it would not pay them to do 
it, and they have all the higher grades of butterine put iu the market 
against butter. 

The Chairman. Are you interested in the manufacture or sale of 
oleomargarine 'I 

Mr. Simpson. Yes ; a little oleomargarine. 

The Chairman. Where is that made ? 

Mr. Simpson. It is made in the West. The butter business of course 
is a much larger business with us. For instance, our milk bill is $1,000 
a day at the present time. We make a half a cent a pound profit on it. 
Our reason for doing it is this, that we have a certain class of trade who 
demand it. We opposed the manufacture and sale of it for years, ex- 
cept that we believed it should be manufactured and sold for what it 
is. I believe that now. I believe every restriction which can possibly 
be thrown about it should be placed upon it injustice to the manufact- 
urer, dealer, and consumer. We think they should be treated alike in 
these matters. We commenced to handle these goods a year ago last 
Aj^ril. We formerly had a large trade iu Gloucester; they bought our 
cheapest butter and ke])t driving away from us until we lost every one 
of them for that class of goods. We still retained their trade on the fine 
goods because they could not get anything better, I suppose, and we 
found that all our trade iu that direction had drifted away, and we 
thought it better to have some of these goods for them if they wanted 
them. We make no special effort to sell it, but the result is that most 
of the Gloucester trade has drifted back and is buying this oleomarga- 
rine for a cheap grade of goods. I think this is the experience of thous- 
ands of people. A gentleman was speaking to me here in Washington 
to-day who handles nothing but fine butter, and he said the time was 
not far distant when we would have butterine on our hands. 

Senator Blair. Is not the tendency of the whole thing towards the 
amalgamation of the dairy and the oleomargarine products ? 

Mr. Simpson. JS^o, sir; I do not think so. I think they will separate 
as my tv\u fingers will. I think many people will never buy oleomar- 
garine if they can't get fine butter — that is good enough for me. 

The Chairman. You do not eat oleomargarine yourself? 

Mr. Simpson. No, sir; I eat the finest creamery butter. 

The Chairman. Are you interested at all in the manufacture of oleo- 
margarine. 

Mr. Simpson. We sell them both. I understand the whole thing, 
Senator. I am a stockholder in the George H. Hammond Company, 
but 1 have no i>art in the management of the company. I also am 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 207 

president of a refrigerator car line, which brings butterine and butter 
from the West. But I have nothing to do with butterine as far as that 
is concerned, and I have nothing to do with the management or manu- 
facture of it. I am only a stockholder. 

The Chairman. Are you interested in the raising of cattle on the 
plains ! 

Mr. Simpson. Yes, sir; I am interested in them from the time they 
are grown in the West until they reach the butcher's block. 

The Chairman. Then it would not make much difference to you 
which way the thing wentf 

Mr. Simpson. Yes, it would, and for this reason : I started twenty 
years ago in Boston, and I commenced in Northern Kew York to buy 
butter, and we gave that up and started West, and we have worked up 
from a very small business to a good one, and I take a pride in the but- 
ter business. Our brand of butter is the best known of any brand any- 
where, and for that reason I propose to continue in the butter business 
if I give up everything else, and I propose to bring up my boys in it. 
We put it in tins and send it all over the world ; we supply the United 
States Government with it. We use nothing but pure cream and salt 
and color. We are down on these creamery men of the West (if there 
are any of them — I do not know of any of them) who are using any 
adulteration, and sooner or later they will come to grief. One gentle- 
man who addressed you yesterday said the creaniery business was going 
to the wall, was closing up. We have kept on buying, and will buy 
them almost any time in our own section ; we will not go beyond that, 
because we are located. 

The Chairman. You have special advantages in disposing of your 
fine grades of butter, I suppose "? 

Mr. Simpson. No, sir ; no more than other men can get. 

The Chairman. You do not mean to say that you think all the farm- 
ers of Iowa can go to Boston and establish houses? 

Mr. Simpson. No, sir ; the middle men ought to have a chance in the 
world, and the farmer cannot put it into the consumer's hands ; that is 
not possible. On the other hand, we pay the farmer more for his 
milk than he could get for it otherwise. What is the cause of these 
creameries in New Hampshire f It is because they make it cleaner and 
better than it was made under the old process, and I do not think, 
therefore, that the creamery is any enemy to the common dairyman, 
and I do not think that oleomargarine is his enemy. If he will handle 
his milk properly and if he will make fine butter, like most of the single 
dairymen in Franklin County, Vermont, he will have no trouble in 
disposing of it. 1 do not think the farm dairies are going to the wall 
there, and the cows selling at a loss. I know farms are not selling at 
a loss in our locality in the West, and I have a partner in Northern New 
York who owns three hundred cows, and he says he does not recognize 
oleo as any competitor, because he can sell his milk; they manufacture 
it in the creameries as we do, and get as good a price for it as he would 
expect to get for any other product that he can raise on his farm. 

The Chairman. Is not this extra creamery butter sold in New York 
to-day for 16 to 18 cents substantially as good butter as you make f 

Mr. Simpson. I would say if it was they ought to get more money 
for it; I can. 

The Chairman. You seem to be fortunate. 

Mr. Simpson. I do not think it is because of my looks, but because I 
have the goods. 

The Chairman. Of course the great prices you obtain cannot be ob- 
tained by the farmers. 



208 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Mr. Simpson. No, sir; but I believe every year the percentagfe of 
fine butter is increasing. The fact is many people thought anybody 
could run a creamery. A large number were farmers, and they said, 
"We will not sell our milk to monopolists, but we will use it ourselves," 
and they have started creameries in a slipshod way, and have lost their 
money. Fine creamery butter can be uiade if you will pay the neces- 
sary attention to it, but not in any other way. You have to watch it 
carefully from the time the milk is received until the butter is packed for 
market. Other peoi)le have the same feed, the same cows, and the same 
facilities. We have no patent rights for running our creameries. 

The Chairman. Are you willing to state what you pay for milk now 
and what you get for butter now? 

Mr. Simpson. Yes, sir ; 1 am. 

The Chairman. I should be glad to have the figures. 

Mr. Simpson. We pay fifty cents a hundred pounds for milk, and lean 
proveby the dairy commissioner that the most of the neighbors around pay 
but foity-tive cents. What makes us do it"^ Because we have over 
$100,000 invested in creameries that are not worth fifty cents on the 
dollar without the patronage of the farm. Because prices run low for 
a few weeks we do not want to put prices so low as to discourage the 
farmer in making milk, and so we pay fifty cents, and it costs us about 
sixteen cents a pound to make it. 

The Chairman. But if butter should remain permanently low you 
could not aftbrd to pay that average price 1 

Mr. Simpson. No, if it should continue so ; but it has never been the 
case that it has remained permaneiitly low ; it always opens up when 
the season opens uj). 

Senator Blair. 1 should like from your standpoint to have you give 
us your idea, very briefly, as to the occasion of this hearing, how it 
coQies about, this complaint, and what remed^y you would administer 
for it. 

Mr. Simpson. I think this hearing comes about in this way very 
largely. I think it comes from the early manufacturers of oleomarga- 
rine manufacturing it and the dealers selling it for butter. I do not 
think that that is fair play. I do not think the present oleomargarine 
manufacturers ask anything of that kind. I think they are satisfied 
that their product is so good, healthy, and cheaj) that it will sell on its 
merits. I think if sold on its merits for a year or two there will not be 
more need of this than there is to-day. I think the grocers would indi- 
vidually take hold and make a lead of it. They would say, " So mauy 
pounds of oleomargarine for a dollar," just as they say " So many pounds 
of sugar for a dollar." I believe that the population of the country has 
increased very much beyond the increase in the production of butter. I 
believe that fully ten million people would have been deprived of any 
butter, or substitute for butter, during the past winter, and I think roll 
butter would have been 50 cents a pound if it had not been for the 
oleo. I think that would have been the difference if it had not been 
for the manufacture of oleo. I think there is a demand for all the fine 
butter that cau be made at a fair price. 

The Chairman. Right there, speaking about the high price if there 
had been no oleo ; would not that matter regulate itself, as every other 
matter does, by the law of supply and demand ? If butter became high, 
would it not lead to the growing of a much larger number of cows and 
a much larger portion of the people of our country going into the dairy 
business, and would it not be self- regulating f 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 209 

Mr. Simpson. To a certain extent, but there are only so many States 
in the dairy belt. Tiiey cannot make tine batter in Tennessee. 

The Chairman. We thoug^ht in New York ten years ago that tliere 
was not any other State in the Union that could make fine butter west 
of us, but we have discovered that in Iowa they make it just as good as 
they do in New York. 

Mr. Simpson. We claim that we can make it better, and we own dairies, 
in New York. I claim that the increase of popu'ation has gone far 
ahead of the increase of supply, aiul that if the farmers concluded tO' 
produce a larger amount of milk in the winter time, it would equalize 
this price. But they are not inclined to do it. There is no necessity for 
butter being so high in winter if the farmer would ariange to have a 
larger supply in winter and not have it so low in summer and averao^e 
the matter. 

The Chairman. Farmers as a body move very slowly in matters of 
that kind, but nevertheless they do move when the price is such as to 
warrant it; and if the price was likely to be permanently large, anj^- 
where near the figures you have mentioned, do you not suppose that 
the daily States could and would very largely increase the output of 
butter by increasing the number of cows "l They are not all stocked up 
to their capacity. 

Mr. Simpson. I think they wou-ld increase. But I do say this, that 
we have tried to encourage winter dairying ever since we have been ia 
Iowa by paying- a little more in the winter than we can afford to, trying 
to educate the farmer up to the fact of having a large supplv in winter 
when it was bringing double the price it does in summer. But we have 
not succeeded in doing it. We keep our creameries open and supply 
the trade at that loss. The fact is the trade is changing. A customer 
used to come and say, " We want a June butter." In a short time they 
would saj', "We want October butter." But now they want the finest 
fresh butter just as soon as they can get it, and all the leg'islation in the 
world will never bring people to eat the old flavored butter. Now I 
claim that the fresh oleo made by these gentlemen is better than an arti- 
cle of butter which is spoiled and not worth over 5 or 6 cents a pound , 

The Chairman. That is not worth eating at all, any more than si)oiled 
meat or vegetables. 

Mr. Simpson. I understaud that, and it is being driven out of the 
market. It applies not only to this, but to everything else. A few years 
ago the small towns in the Eastern States were satisfied with the class 
of beef they raised. Now, even as far east as Bangor, they want corn- 
fed beef, and they are producing more and more corn-fed cattle. Our 
company is commencing to fatten more and more cattle every year and 
makes a larger amount of this tallow and beef fat. I believe it would 
be very much less in value were it not for this manufacture of oleomar- 
garine. I received a telegram here yesterday from the Wyoming Stock- 
Growers' Association, an association of cattlemen representing a capi- 
tal of $100,000,000, which reads as follows : 

To George W. Simpson, 

Riggs House, Washington, D. C. : 
Present to Senate committee the united protest of this association, representing the 
range interests of Wyoming, Nebraska, and Dakota, against passage of oleomaro-arine 
bill, A prohibitory tax will destroy the piucipal market for tallow and decrease 
value of all beeves East and West fli per head. We consider it an honest food prod- 
uct when sold by its own name. We protest against injustice to our industry in order 
to aid another. 

JOHN A. McSHANE, 
THOMAS STURGIS, 
Officers Wyoming Stock-Growers' Assoeiaiion 
17007 OL 14 



210 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Senator Blair, I want you to have an opportunity of answering the 
question you were proceeding to answer. 1 asked you how you would 
remedy this state of affairs 1 

Mr. SiMJ'SON. 1 have to say this : That I have no i)lan in n)y mind, 
but 1 say distinctly that something should be done which would regu- 
late the manufacture and sale of this product. I think great injustice 
is being done to the consumer by charging him, as the retailer does 
when he sells it for butter, 1^5 per cent, above its commercial value. I 
claim that such a law as exists in New York State at the present time 
encourages the dealer to commit fraud — that very thing, a prohibitory 
law. Last winter it was almost imi)ossible for a man to get butter at a 
reasonable price, so that all these men who sell the article — the retail- 
ers — took the chances and sold it for butter. But I believe a national 
law could be passed beneficial to all alike. 

Senator Blair. What provisions would you put into that law? 

Mr. Simpson. That is a question that cannot be answered in a mo- 
ment or without a great deal of thought and more experience than 1 
have. The members of this committee in their wisdom would be better 
able to determine that. A license might possibly regulate it. I would 
think that a tax no larger than what really the Government was ob- 
liged to i)ut on wouhl be all right : but 1 do not believe in putting on a 
tax which will be a burden upon the industry in any sense of the word. 

Senator Blair. Here is the trouble. These gentlemen advise a rem- 
edj", and you say the evil exists and ought to be removed, and yet you 
have no suggestion to make. What can we do but to enact such a law 
as this? 

Senator Jones. I do not think the gentleman gets exactly your point. 
He thinks you are asking him for the details of the bill, but I thought 
you were asking for the purpose to be reached and not the details of 
the bill. 

Mr. Simpson. The purpose to be reached is protection to all manu- 
facturers, dealers, and consumers. 

Senator Jones. Your idea, then, of what ought to be accomiDlished 
by legislation is that the manufacturer, dealer, and consumer ought to 
be protected by the law in knowing exactly what is sold, especially to 
know the imitation butter from the real butter? 

Mr. Simpson. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. Do you think that would correct the evil? 

Mr. Simpson. Y^es; let every tub stand on its own merits, whether 
oleomargarine or creamery butter, and not color it pink or black or any- 
thing of that kind ; there is no advantage in that. 

Senator Sawyer. Would not a moderate license tax accomplish what 
you desire, and what we all agree should be accomplished? 

Mr. Simpson. I think so, with a penalty attached to it for selling it 
for what it is not. 

Senator Sawy'ER. What would you think about taxing it a penny a 
pound ; would that, in your judgment, affect the manufacture seriously ? 

Mr. Simpson. Not the manufacture, but it would the consumer. It 
is quite a percentage when it sells for 10 or 11 cents a pound. 

Senator Sawyer. It would have the tendency to carry it up a penny 
a pound ; there is no doubt about that ? 

Mr. Slmpson. Y^es, it would. 

The Chairman. I understood the gentleman to mean to say that a 
tax or license should only be in the direction of more fully carrying out 
the law ? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS 211 

Mr. Simpson. Yes; and the smallest possible amount, to protect all 
alike. 

Senator Jones. You mean by protection that everybody shall have 
full notice of what is being done? 

Mr. Simpson. Yes, sir. 

STATEMENT OF PROF. D. E. SALMON. 

Prof. D.E. Salmon, Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, then addressed the committee. 

It is only within a day or two that I have had the intention of ai)i)ear- 
iug before this committee, because I have friends on both sides of this 
question, and it was only when I was requested by tlie dairy interests 
of the country to correct certain points or give my opinion on certain 
points of expert testimony which has been offered here before the com- 
mittee that I consented to appear at all. 

I have prepared some, notes of what I wish to say, and what I intend 
to say is suggestive rather than exhaustive, as the facts that I siiall 
refer to I believe are correct and incontestable from a scientific stand- 
point. 

1 have been informed that at least some of the scientific gentlemen 
who have been before this committee have stated very i)ositively that 
oleomargarine and similar butter substitutes are equally wholesome 
and of equal value as a food product with genuine butter, and that the 
fat from which it is made is not infested by any parasites or germs of 
parasites, and I have been requested to make a statement in regard to 
such facts as have come to my knowledge bearing upon this subject. I 
am neither an expert in chemistry nor in butter-making, but I have 
given considerable attention to physiology, to the diseases of animals, 
and to the influence of animal foods on the public health, and the 
statements in this paper are made from this point of view. 

By way of introduction, it is well to assert my conviction that these 
questions are rather physiological and pathological questions than 
chemical ones. The chemical composition cannot in all cases be relied 
upon to give the properties, the solubility, or the digestibility of the 
substance analyzed. For instance, the chemist tells us that the phos- 
phate of lime in bones and in mineral phosphates is in both cases tri-basic 
phosphate; that it has the same composition, and is chemically the same 
substance ; and yet when ground into fine powder and placed in the soil 
the one is very much more soluble and available for plant food than 
the other, and is valued at about twice as much per pound. Chemically 
there is no difference in the composition of cellulose as it is found ex- 
isting in ditferent plants, or between cellulose and starch, but practi- 
cally there is a great difference in the results of feeding animals upon 
sawdust, wheat or oat straw, and young and tender plauts. There is 
also a difference in the digestibility of cellulose and starch. Such facts 
lead us to ask if there may not be a variation in the digestibility of fats 
from different sources, aiul they admonish the chemist that it is not 
always safe to hazard a conclusion as to the digestibility of a substance 
from its chemical compositiou alone. 

DIGESTIBILITY OF FATS. 

In 1880 the French Academy of Medicine appointed a committee to re- 
port upon theadvisability of substituting oleomargarine for butter in the 
public asylums of the Department of the Seine. This committee made 



212 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

a report which aijpeared in the Bulletin of the Academy of Medicine for 
1880, a report which appears to be sound both from a chemical and a 
physiological point of view. I quote as follows from this report, with 
the single explanation that the word "margarine" is used synonym- 
ously with "oleomargarine": 

In the case where oils are added to the margarine the product certainly does not 
becdnie dangerous oi' even uuhealthful, nevertheless it nuiy have disadvantages. M. 
Berthe has made very careful tests of this point, Ihe results of Avhich have not been 
contradicted. According to this savant, fatty substances are not absorljed with any- 
thing like the same rapidity, nor even in equal (]uantiry, when equal weights are ad- 
ministered under the same conditions. Thus, the oil of sweet almonds, olive oil — in a 
•word, the vegetable oils, would be less easily absorbed than the animal fats. Conse- 
quently the piesence of peanut oil cannot be without disadvantage, above all with 
persons in delicate health. 

The mixtures which to day constitute margarine, and which are necessarily very 
variable, will i)lace the sick persons on a variable alimentation of fats, that is to say, 
in unfavorable conditions, and as the absorption of fatty bodies is not; acconjplished 
■with the same iacility as that of the other aliments, the employment of margarine is 
to be regretted from this new point of view. (Page 4(54.) 

Suppose that the margarine delivered to the asylums is jjure, that is to say, that 
they succeed in holding the bidders (adjiidicataires) iu awe by fear that analysis will 
discover the fraud, will the substitution of margarine for true butter be without any 
disadvantages ? We do not think so. 

The experiments of M. Lailler, pharmacist to the asylum of Quatre-Mares, leads us 
by another way to the same coii«lusiou. He has taken equal weights of uuirgarine 
and of pure butter and suspended them in various liquids, rigorously placing them 
under the same conditions. He has always observed that margarine forms an emul- 
sion with greater difliculty tban butter, and that the globules of the butter are smaller 
and do not separate so readily as the globules of grease. (Pages 464, 465.) 

The mode of absorption of fatty bodies has been discussed for a loug time. There 
is accord now in admitting that they must be emulsified in oixler to be absorbed. 
Therefore, if margarine forms an emulsion with difliculty, if the globules formed have 
not the extreme fineness of the globules of butter, if these globules rapidly resolve 
themselves into oil, the margarine is found in a condition for absorption very inferior 
to that of butter, and it would be regrettable to see it substituted for this, especially 
for the sick, because ii is to be feared that the absorption of the fats, which are of 
all substances digested those of which the absorption is the most liuiiied, would only 
be performed with difiiculty (page 465). (Bulletin de I'Acad^mie de Medecine, Stance 
du 11 Mai, 1880.) 

This report simply confirms an observation of everyday experience 
known to every housewife in the country, viz, that many articles of 
food are made more delicate and digestible by substituting butter for 
lard or tallow in their composition, or by cooking them in butter instead 
of in these other fats. This is a matter of great concern to a nation which 
is said to be rapidly becoming a nation of dyspeptics, and above all it 
concerns the part of our population who must consume butter bought 
iu the open market — I mean the people who live in cities and towns, 
whose occupation is more or less sedentary, and whose greatest dangers 
are indigestion, imperfect assimilation of food, and the diseases favored 
by an improperly-nourished body. 

Fatty substances which are easily assimilated have a very great food 
value, as we see in the case of cod-liver oil, which often builds up a frail 
body and enables it to throw off disease when all other measures fail. 
The effect of cod-liver oil is not the effect of a drug, but of a food, and 
it is of more value than other oils because it is more easily absorbed. 

Fats and oils from different sources are consequently not necessarily 
of the same food value. Some of these are only absorbed with great difli- 
culty and in small quantities ; some retard the digestion of the other 
constituents of the food and derange the functions of the alimentary 
canal ; still others are cathartics and cause the contents of the bowels 
to be voided so soon that there is not an opportunity for digestion and 
assimilation. While some fats have an intrinsic food value, therefore, 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 213 

others are without such value, aud still others are a detriment, hinder- 
ing the digestion of other foods and deranging the functions of the di- 
gestive organs. 

It is reasonable to conclude from these facts that butter has an in- 
trinsic value foi- food beyond that of lard, tallow, or cottonseed oil, 
which might not be suspected from its chemical composition. A.s I 
understand the process of manufacturing ob^oinavgarine there is noth- 
ing about it which increases the food value of the constituents from 
which it is made ; the object of the different processes is sim[)l,v to se- 
cure a product which in appearance and consistency resembles butter 
as closely as possible. And this imitation is carried so far that the 
best tirades of oleomaigarine deceive the sight and taste, and require an 
expert to distiugnish tliem from good butter. In other words, it has 
become more difficult to distinguish between oleomargarine aud batter 
than between good butter and poor butter. 

It may be admitted that there is a difference in food value between 
poor butter and good butter. The high price of the best butter is not, as 
some suppose, entirely a fancy price — it is based to a hirge extent upon 
intrinsic value. To explain this: Butter fat as itexists in an emulsion 
in milk is in its most digestible form ; it needs little digestion aud is 
readily assimilated. The best butter is granular, made at a low tem- 
perature and worked but little. In this the batter globules do not co- 
alesce and form a liomogeneous fat, but they are held separate as 
granules, and they easily go back to the condition of an emulsion. The 
more butter is worked and the granules broken up and forced together 
the farther is it carried from the emulsiflled condition, and the more 
difficulty would we expect in its digestion aud assiaiilation. 

The exact dilference in food value of these different grades of batter 
has never been determined; but that there is a difference I consider 
just as incontestable as that there is a difference in food value between 
oleomargarine and butter. There is this difference in the two cases, how- 
ever: the oleomargarine manufacturer, by bringing into use the latest 
discoveries of modern science, and an expensive plant, can produce an 
article which deceives the eye and palate of the consumer; bat poor but- 
ter bears its own brand, and no consumer takes it into his stomach under 
the imj^ression that it is the first quality and made by the graunlar pro- 
cess. 

PARASITES. 

That the fat of animals slaughtered for food may contain objectiona- 
ble parasites is a fact which admits of no doubt whatever. In eating 
meats or fats which are raised to a high temperature, (^ther in cooking 
or in rendering, we are generally protected from these parasites ; bat 
when we take into our stomachs the tissues of animals which have not 
been raised to a sufficient temperature to destroy these inferior organ- 
isms, we confront a serious danger, which it would be folly to conceal. 
And this danger is the greater in our country because we have no sys- 
tematic and skilled inspection of animals and carcasses intended for 
food. 

The Sderostonia pinguwola is a round worm from 1 to 2 inches long, 
which as its name indicates lives in the fat. It is a very common para- 
site of hogs in this section and south of here, bat I am unable to speak 
of its prevalence in the States farther north. It bores channels through 
the fat about the kidneys and lives and multiplies there in considerable 
numbers. It is a very difficult matter to remove all of these worms from 
the fat even when we carefully dissect and follow uj) the channels in 



214 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

which they live. Fortunately this worm is not known to inhabit the 
human body or to cause any injurious eiiects with the consumer. 

The so called measles of hogs and cattle are caused by the larval form 
of two distinct species of tape-worms, the Teenia solium in the hog and the 
Tcenia medioeaneUata of cattle. If this larval form of tape- worm, which 
is called the cysticercus foru), is taken with the food by man, it develops 
in the alimentary canal and forms the adult tape-worm. 

Senator IJlaik. Is there auy reason to believe that those worms are 
unhealthy, if well cooked? 

Professor Salmon. No, sir; not if they are well cooked. 

Senator Blair. They are made from the substances which wo eat 
without danger"? 

Professor Salmon. They are dangerous to man not because poisonous, 
but because created in the flesh of the animal. If boiled sufficiently 
they are killed, but it requires a temperature of 145 to 150 degrees. 

Tlie Chairman. They are not very good for food taken alive, but 
would not seriously iujure the human system if dead? 

Professor Salmon. No, sir. 

Senator Jones. Are these parasites found in the main iu larger quan- 
tities in the muscles and tissues, or iu the fat? 

Professor Salmon. They are found in the connective tissues between 
the fats in larger numbers than elsewhere. 

Senator Jones. And a man who eats the flesh of the animal is more 
likely to get harmed than when he eats the fat? 

Professor Salmon. Yes, sir; but when he eats the flesh of the animal 
he eats it cooked, and in this case it is only heated to a low tempera- 
ture. 

It is sometimes asserted that the cysticercus is a muscle parasite, and 
does not live iu other i)artsof the body. Tliis statement is not correct. 
The cysticercus is iound iu the connective tii-sue, very often between the 
muscular tibers, it is true, but very often also in the connective tissue 
beneath the skin, and in the liver, spleen, and fat of the abdominal 
cavity. 

Tlie following authorities are quoted to confirm this statement: 

Cobbold says: 

The cysticeici luay develop themselves iu almost auy situatiou iu the huuiau body, 
but they occur most couimoniy iu the subcutaneous, areolar, aud iutermuscuhir con- 
nective tissue; next most commonly in the brain and eye, and lastly in the substance 
of the heart, aud other viscera of the truuk. (Parasites, page 91.) 

Schmidt Miilheim says: 

Cysticerci are aI|o fouud iu the subcutaneous tissue, iuthe luugs, spleen, liver, and 
Bpiual cord; iu the eyes, the kidneys and other organs, as well as iu the serous cavi- 
ties of the body (page 109). The cysticerci appear in the pig at times sparingly ; at 
times iu enormous numbers; not iufrequeutly many thousands are fouud iu the con- 
nective tissue of the muscles. More than a hundred have been found iu the brain 
alone. Eveu iu the fat they are met with. (P. llU Handbuch der Fleischkuude, 18:^4.) 

In the same work, we find iu regard to the cysticercus bovis, page 118 : 

This cysticercus, like that of the ])ig, inhabits by preference the connective tissue 
between the muscle fibers and the heart ; it is also met with iu the liver, lungs, braio, 
and other organs (page 119). 

Perroncito fed two calves : 

On slanghtering them, in one, iieart, Inugs, liver and spleen contained none, the me- 
sentery only a few cysticerci. At tlie autopsy of the second calf two large cysticerci 
were found iu the mesentery and omentum, two beneath Glisson's capsule of the liver, 
and about twenty in tbe heart. Beneath the peritoneum of the abdominal wails a 
considerable numbt^r of scattered cysticerci in the form of broad, pale cysts 12 millime- 
ters long aud 3-4 millimeters broad could be seen. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 215 

It is generally supposed that the trichina is exclusively a muscle par- 
asite, but this is probably largely due to the fact that it is more diflBcult 
todiscover them in the lard. Ohatio, who wrote a volume on trichina a 
few years ago, asserts that they may be found in the fat of parts not 
connected with the muscles. I have made the following translation 
from a passage in his work : 

fl. Fragnieuts of larfl takeu from a piece of American salted meat were, after hard- 
ening, examined in thin sections nnder a magnification of 120 diameters. Several 
preparations showed no trace of the parasite, but with a few the trichinae appeared 
clearly characterized. Among these nematodes, some not encysted presented the 
same aspect as those found in animals which die at the beginning of tissue trichinosis. 
Others normally encysted were identical with those which were found in the muscu- 
lar parts of the same piece of meat. 

b. Pieces of lard chosen far from all contractile masses were treated by ether and 
bisulphide of carbon ; the residue examined under the magnitication indicated above 
showed several trichiiue, of which several were encysted. 

These researches were undertaken with meats seized at Paris and Joyous. Several 
microscopists (MM. Delavan, Kourmont, &-c.) soon confirmed from their side the pres- 
ence of tlie trichiufe in the fatty tissue. The fact soon became generalized by numer- 
ous observations of the Laboratoire de Micrographie de I'ficole des Hantes Etudes, 
and I was able later to collect more trichin;e encj'sted in the fat. (La trichiue et la 
trichinose, par Joannes Chatin. Paris, 18d:i, page 88.) 

I see no reason to donbt these statements, judging from the life his- 
tory of the parasite. We all know that the adult worm gives birth to 
the embryos in the alimentary canal of the host, and that then the em- 
bryos bore through the intestinal walls and other tissues until they find 
a place where they are satisfied to coil themselves up and become en- 
cysted. The psoas muscles are among those most infested, and to reach 
these the embryos must pass through the leaf lard. It is not surprising 
that some of them conclude to stop there and make it their permanent 
dwelling-place. 

When we consider that on an average about 2 per cent, of the hogs 
killed in this country are trichinous, making for the twelve or fifteen 
million hogs annually packed in our large cities 250,000 to 300,000 in- 
spected animals, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that there is dan- 
ger in consuming the expressed fat from hogs which have not been in- 
spected. It is true we might not get very many of the parasites in this 
way, but as every adult female worm produces about 1,500 young, a 
very few of them would be as large a dose as most of us would care to 
take. 

That there is reason to believe in the dissemination of both the forms 
of tape-worm referred to above through oleomargarine I cannot doubt, 
but the danger of obtaining trichiniie from this source is very much 
greater. It is not probable, of course, that a sufticient number of 
trichinae would be consumed at one time with this new article of food 
to produce violent sickness, but a few worms might cause irritation of 
the stomach and bowels and pains and soreness of the muscles as the 
embryos bored their way through these organs. Such symptoms would 
also withont doubt be considered as due to malaria or rheumatism, and 
the trouble i)robably would not be serious ; but it is an open question if 
it would not soon become a serious question for us to continue to take 
these parasites into our system for an indefinite time and until our mus- 
cles became loaded with them. 

There is little reason to doubt, therefore, that the danger connected 
with the use of oleomargarine, from the liability of the presence of such 
worms, which are parasites in man as well as in animals, is one that is 
deserving of thoughtful consideration. 



216 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

HOG CHOLERA AND TUBERCULOSIS. 

Of the parasites which are liable to coutamiuate the fats used iu the 
production of butter substitutes, by far the most dangerous to the 
human subject, in my estimation, are those minute organisms which be- 
long to the class of bacteria. It is well known that there is a disease 
called hog cholera, which prevails to an enormous extent among the 
«wine of this country. Having been engaged iu the study of that 
plague for uearly eight years, microscopically, by inoculation experi- 
ments, and in almost every other imaginable way, my statements iu re- 
gard to it are based ujjou considerable i)ersonal experience. I do not 
regard the germ of this disease as iu itself particularly dangerous to 
the human subject, although cases are on record where it is claimed 
that people have died from infection with it. Still, I would greatly pre- 
fer not to take it in a living form with my food. 

A greater danger arises from the com]»lications of this disease. I 
<can explain this in a few words. In hog cholera, large ulcers form in 
the intestines, through which sei)tic germs, some of them having great 
virulence, jienetrate into the abdominal cavity and there multii)ly in a 
liquid thrown out by the irritated serous membranes. These germs 
multiply ui)on and peuetiate to a certain extent the membrane which 
•covers and forms a part of the leaf lard. Now, there are all degrees of 
sickness in hog cholera. There is a chronic form, in which these ulcers 
and this septic infection may exist and in which the aniuuil does not 
show any plain symptoms of sickness. It is certainly conceivable that 
the fat of some such animals may tind its way into the oleomargarine 
vats. 

But the greatest danger of all, and one to which I shall alhide very 
briefly, is connected with the disease now known as tuberculosis. There 
is no disease to which the human flesh is heir which deserves more care- 
ful consideration than this. In the census of 1880, 91,000 of the deaths 
recorded were attributed to oue form of this disease, viz, consumption ; 
of the deaths from all causes were reported, so that we are obliged to 
but it was acknowledged by the statistician that not more than flve-sixths 
increase this number by one-lifth, or 18,000. to get the correct total. In 
other words, iu J880, with a population of 50,000,000, we lost 109,000 
people from consumjjtion, that is, from tuberculosis of the lungs. Bat 
tuberculosis of the bowels or tabes mesenterica and tubeculosis of the 
brain or tubercular meningitis are also very common diseases, but the 
deaths from these causes are not reported. Taking a population of 
60,000,000, which we shall soon have, and 1 doubt if we will be much 
out of the way in estimating our death rate from all forms of tubercu- 
losis at 175,000. That is an enormous number of huumn lives to be de- 
stroyed in oue year and in oue country b> a preventable disease, and 
it demands that such measures shall be adopted speedily as shall limit 
the distribution of its cause. 

We know today that tuberculosis is a contagious disease, and that it 
may develo]) from tubercular matter being taken into the stomach with 
the food. It was fornunly considered to be an hereditary disease, but 
with the recent advances of science that view is being forced into the 
background, and the most that is chiimed iu that direction now by our 
scientitic physicians is that a predisposition to it is inherited. In other 
words, if a jterson has tuberculosis that shows that he was susceptible 
to that contagion, and it itulicates that the members of his family, having 
a similar constitution, are also susceptible to it, and will contract it if 
they are exposed to the germs which produce it; but these germ<, the 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 217 

coQtagioii of the disease, must euter the body iu some way before a per- 
son can develop tuberculosis. 

Now, tuberculosis is a very cotnmou disease of cattle— aud the bovine 
form is believed to be identical with that which affects man— it is a dis- 
ease which also affects the ho^-. The tubercles often form in these ani- 
mals ui)ou the serous membranes and in the glands of the abdominal 
cavity in situations where they would necessarily contaminate those 
portions of the fat which are used in the manufticture of oleomargarine. 
We do not know what i)roportion of our beef cattle are tuberculous, but 
in Europe, where careful statistics have been recorded for a series of 
years, and with large numbers of cattle, it is found that among the ani- 
mals which come to the slaughter houses for beef there are all the way 
from two to thirty in every thousand. In this country we have no such 
inspection, and it'is very seldom that an animal affected with tubercu- 
losis is ever condenmed. It is not difficult to imagine what follows 
when the contaminated fat of a steer or a hog affected with this -disease 
is transformed into oleomargarine or butterine, or any of these com- 
pounds. It may be mixed with a thousand or with thousands of pounds 
of other tat and contaminate it. I am unable to say how much fat is 
mixed together for this i)urpose, but I presume it varies with the capac- 
ity of the factory. If we say a thousand i)0unds, then it may go to a 
thousand families, and be eaten by five thousand persons. 

These figures are of course only conjectural, and they are simply used 
to show what a remarkable eflect upou the public health is possible by 
a new invention like this, which introduces a radical change into the 
manufacture of an article of food which goes ui)on the table of every 
family in the laud. It is not my desire to make any sensational state- 
ments before this committee. 1 do not know, nor can any one tell at 
this time, what the exact effect of an extensive use of oleomargarine 
will be upon the health of our people. There have been scientists here 
who have asserted positively that oleomargarine is just as wholesome, 
just as valuable, just as free from danger to health as pure butter. 
With this conclusion I cannot concur, and I believe that it should be 
made and sold under such restrictions as will enable every consumer to 
know that he is not eating oleomargarine when he thinks he is eating 
geuuine butter. 

The Chairman. The authorities which you have cited, and your own 
experience as a scientific man, lead you to make the statement that par- 
asites of various kinds are found in the fats of animals, I understand 
you 1 

Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. And the authorities you have cited are acknowledged 
scientific men, and you cite them to prove that fact! 

Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. There is no contest between scientific 
men in regard to this point — scientists who have made a special study 
of parasites. I do not think any one would contest the statement from 
a scientific point of view. 

Senator Jones. I believe you stated you were uot an expert chemist, 
but a physiologist. Do your conclusions as a physiologist lead you to 
believe that oleomargarine is an unhealthful pioduct ? 

Professor Salmon. To the extent and degree which I have indicated 
iu my paper. 

Senator JoNEt^. As to being a little more indigestible ? 

Professor Salmon. As to being a little more indigestible and the fact 
that it may contain dangerous parasites. Of course that depends largely 



218 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

on the way it is mannfactured, how carefully the animals are inspected 
from which the fat is taken. 

Senator JoNES. Those are the two points on which you consider it 
unhealthy ? 

Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. If in the manufacture of oleomargarine the product 
is heated to a temperature verging closely upon the temperature of 
boiling water you would think there would be no danger from i)ara- 
sites ? 

I'rofessor Salmon. No, sir ; I would not say that. The most impor- 
tant ])oint, I think, is in regard to the germs of tuberculosis, a germ 
which withstands the boiling point for a certain length of time and which 
may be induced by tubercles in the serous membranes which cover the 
fat of hogs and cattle. 

Senator Jones. Supposing tubercles were found in the fat of ani- 
mals, \Could they be likely to be found in the other parts of the animal 
as well ? 

Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. In larger quantities than in the fat 1 

Professor Salmon. No, sir. 

Senator Jones. Where would they be found besides in the fat? 

Professor Salmon. In the long tissues of the serous membranes which 
cover the lungs, or growing on the serous membranes wbich line the 
abdominal cavities. 

Senator Jones. You think it is ])ossible to ha\'e iu the same animal 
tubercles in the fat and in tlie tiesh I 

Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. Have you ever known, in your observation as a physi- 
ologist, of a man or animal being affected in that way ? 

Professor Salmon. It is very ditiioult to get positive evidence. I 
know of many cases where it is suspected they were affected in that 
way, but these i)arasites are very small. 

Senator Jones. Affected, you mean, by the use of oleomargarine"? 

Professor Salmon. By the use of products of cattle that were in- 
fected with tubercles; by eating perhaps a very raw steak or something 
of that kind. 

Senator Jones. That would come, then, from the muscles and not 
from the fat ? 

Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. I understood you to say there was no danger of its 
coming from the muscles. You may have misunderstood me, but I un- 
derstood you to say just now that the tubercles would never be found 
in the muscles, but only in the lungs, the fat, or some other part of the 
body. 

Professor Salmon. No, sir; I did not intend to state that. You asked 
me if they would not be found in larger quantities. They are sometimes 
found in all parts of the body. I have seen cattle killed where they 
were only beginning to show these tubercles. 

Senator Jones. There would be danger in consuming the animal in 
any way in the beginning of this disease? 

Professor Salmon. Yes, sir; unless thoroughly cooked. 

Senator JojNES. Would there be any danger of its being communi- 
cated in the milk? 

Professor Salmon. A little danger, but I will state that it is gener- 
ally recognized by scientific men that it is not communicated through 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 219 

milk unless there are tubercles iu the udder, and that is the last organ 
in which tubercles are found. 

Senator George. Would it be possible then to convey these things 
in butter? 

Professor Salmon. I suppose it would be possible, but as a fact by 
the time the tubercles appeared in the udder, the animal is so far ad- 
vanced in the disease that it does not give milk. They appear tirst on 
the seions membranes, and when in that condition the animal is often 
used for food. 

Senator J(tNES. I would like to ask if you rely on the scientific infor- 
mation solely, attained by this investigation iu Paris, as to the propriety 
of using oleomargarine as a food in hospitals, as the only scientific proof 
you have outside of your own opinion that this thing is deleterious, or 
has it been asserted by other scientific investigations to be so ? 

Professor Salmon. You refer to the digestibility "? Well, I base 
that almost entirely on the Paris report. 

Senator Jones. That was in 1880? 

Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. Six years have elapsed since then, and there have 
been no other investigations of a scientific nature tending to establish 
that theory ? 

Professor Salmon. 1 do not know of any other. 

Senator Jones. That was in the early history of this production, and 
that has not been afdrmed or denied since that time? 

Professor Salmon. 1 do not know that it has, but it is one of those 
things which in itself bears the stamp that it is of scientific value. 

Senator Jones. I suppose, from the fact that you have produced it, 
that is now about the best evidence that can be produced in supi)ort of 
the theor,, 1 

Professor Salmon. 1 do not know about that; I have uot been pay- 
ing so very much attention to the literature of this subject; my attention 
has bee)i iu another line. But when I was asked only a day or two ago 
in regard to this matter, I naturally turned to this. 

Senator Jones. The digestibility, I understand, was the chief point 
of objection at that time on this subject ? * 

Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. I want to ask if, in your opinion as a physiologist, 
there is any greater ditfereuce in the digestibility between oleomarga- 
rine and butter than between beef and mutton ? 

Professor Salmon. Yes, sir ; there is. 

Senator Jones. Is there any more difference between the digestibility 
of oleomargarine and butter tlian there is between beef and pork ? 

Professor Salmon. 1 could not say the exact degree of difference. I 
simply wanted to say that there was a difference. 

Senator Jones. And I wanted to get some approximate idea of what 
the difference was. 

Professor Salmon, The details of this matter have never been worked 
out thoroughly ; it simply stands in the position M'here we can say there 
is a difference. 

Senator Jones. I understand that in a hospital nobody would ever 
think of feeding a patient on ])ork, because it would be less digestible 
than some other meats ; still it would not be proper for that reason to 
pass a law that nobody should eat pork. 

Professor Salmon. I certainly am very far from recommending the 
passage of a law which would prevent anybody eating oleomargarine if 
be wanted to. 



220 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Seuator Jones. Your idea is to bavc this article so guarded by laws 
that people shall not be imposed upon, and so that anybody who wants 
to use it can be allowed to use it "? 

Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. 

Seuator Jones. You think there is nothing in the constituent ele- 
ments of the product that a man should be defended from it as from an 
«nemy ? 

Professor Salmon. ]S"o, sir ; I think we should give every man a 
chance to take it or let it alone. That is all that anybody can reason- 
ably ask ? 

STATEMENT OF WALTER BROWN. 

Mr. Walter Brown, of Washington, D. C, came before the com- 
mittee. 

The Chairman. Please state to the committee your occupation. 

Mr. Brown. I am a butcher here in the District. I do not know any- 
thing about the manufacture of oleomargarine or butter, but I know 
something about the fat that goes into it. 

The Chairman. Tell the committee, briefly, what you do know, if 
anything. 

Mr. Brown. We sell our fat to men here. There is a first and a sec- 
ond grade of fat, and the majority of the beef fat all goes into the oil 
that is shipped oif to the manufacturers of oleomargarine. When it 
leaves our slaughter houses in the summer time it is fly-blown, and upon 
the fat that is left from market the fly-blows are hatched, and I have 
sent it away with them crawling in the fat. 

Senator Jones. Where did this go when you sold it? 

Mr. Brown. We sold it in Georgetown, on Water street. Weaver 
& Kengla have a soap factory there, and the mutton fat goes into the 
soap and the rest is steamed; 1 believe they steam the oil out and press 
it, and the oil is then put in barrels and sent to Baltimore. I do not 
know whether this firm sends to Baltimore or not, but the firm we used 
to sell to used to send to Baltimore. 

The Chairman. How do you know that? 

Mr. Brown. 1 know they shipped it there ; I have seen it go — the 
oil. 

The Chairman. How do you know i 

Mr. Brown. I saw the oil shipped away. I do not know whether it 
is put in oleomargarine. 

The Chairman. You said first it was put into oleomargarine. How 
do you know that ? 

Mr. Brown. I never followed the oil. I know this, that the agents 
of these oleomargarine companies came here about four years ago and 
iildnced us to stop selling our fat to these fat men. We were then get- 
ting 5^ cents for our fat, and they said they would give us 6 cents and 
6^ cents if we would sell our fat to tbem. 

Seuator Jones. Who do you mean by "them"? 

Mr. Brown. I do not know his name — it was one man, an agent. 
Mr. Stinchcomb is the name of the agent here who bought for this firm. 
We sold it at 6h cents a pound. We all went in and sold our fat to 
them, and the soaj) man was broken up, and they have been bringing the 
price of it down until we are only getting 2^ cents for the best, and 2 
oents for what they call the rough mutton fat with little i)ieces of meat 
attached. This ayent at the time proposed to me that I should send 
over there and get the refuse, as he called it ; it is chopped up fine and 



IMITATION DAIRY PEODUCTS. 221 

goes through this process. I seut over and got some barrels of it to feed 
my hogs on, and paid 25 cents a barrelful, a barrel about the whisky 
barrel size. I sent over and got three barrels of it, but neither my hogs, 
dogs, chickens or anything else on the place would touch it. Tobacca 
and the refuse of oleomargarine are the only things I know that a hog 
will not eat. 

Senator Jones. Where is that factory that you got the refuse from ? 

Mr. Brown. It was shipped from Baltimore. 

Senator Jones. Who did you buy that from ! 

Mr. Brown. From Mr. Stinchcomb, the agent of this fat that was 
shipped away to the oleomargarine companies. 

Senator Jones. What oleomargarine company manufactured the 
product ? 

Mr. Brown. I do not know that. If I had known that the gentle- 
men wanted me to come up Iiere I would have had my books with me. 

Senator Jones. Where is that factory establislied ? 

Mr. Brown. It was over in Georgetown. That was about four years^ 
ago. 

Senator Jones. The oleomargarine factory was in Georgetown ? 

Mr. Brow^n. No, sir; not the factory, but the agent. It was shipped 
to Baltimore and this stuif was shipped back. 

Senator Jones. The oleomargarine manufactory was in Baltimore. 

Mr. Brown. I suppose so. 

Senator Jones. What makes you suppose sot 

Mr. Brown. Mr. Stinchcomb told me what he was doing with the 
fat, that he was shipping it to the companies, but I do not know to 
what companies. If I had known I was coming up here I could have 
brought my books. 

Senator Jones. Will you furnish the name of this firm and their loca- 
tion from your books, and hand it to the stenographer and let it go into 
your statement ? 

Mr. Brown. Yes ; I cannot to-day, but I will to-morrow. I know it 
is impossible for us to keep our fat clean in the summer time; the flies 
will blow it. We commence to kill in the morning of a hot day, for 
instance, and it may be 10 or 12 o'clock before we get through, and the 
fat lies there until my wagon comes home from market. 

Senator Jones. Then what do you do with it ! 

Mr. Brown. We have a hide and fat association of our own, the 
District butchers, and we send it there ; then Weaver and Kengla send 
there later in the evening and get it and take it to their place up on 
Water street, at the soap factory. It is there selected out, the best of 
it (it is six weeks now since they have stopped), and it is washed and 
chopped up in pieces to put into soap, and the rest they steam and get 
the oil, and that was sent to Baltimore, I suppose. I can furnish the 
name of the jDlace where the oil was sent to. 

Senator Jones. These people in Georgetown made oleomargarine oil 
up to six weeks ago 1 

Mr. Brown. Yes, sir. 

Senator Sawyer. Did you see it ; were you there, and did you see 
them make it ? 

Mr. Brown. No, sir ; I did not see it. 

Senator Sawyer. Somebody told you about it ? 

Mr. Brown. Yes, sir. 

Senator Sawyer. That is what I supposed j you heard so by rumor 
on the street ? 



222 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS, 

Mr. Brown. Well, we are all connected together, only I have no in- 
terest in that part at all. They got the fat from the association. 

The Chairman. You were told by the people who bought the fat that 
they used it for making oleo oil ? 

Mr. Brown. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. That is not a rumor on the street. 

Mr. Brown. Oh, I saw a letter from the company last summer. The 
clerk showed it to me. It said, •' The last oil you shipped to us was 
musty. Please be careful and keep this sweet." I can get the name of 
the person who sent that letter. 1 saw that letter myself, and he asked 
me right there to see that my fat was kept sweet. 

The Chairman. You say you got two or three barrels of the refuse? 

Mr. Brown. I got three barrels. 

The Chairman. To feed to your hogs ? 

Mr. Brown. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. But they would not eat it ? 

Mr. Brown. No, sir; nor the chickens nor the dog. 

The Chairman. Did you examine that material to see what it was? 

Mr. Brown. It looked to me like sausage or pudding-meat chopped 
up fine, just in a kind of loblolly. 

The Chairman. Had it been pressed ? 

Mr. Brown. It had been pressed, and on top the maggots had gath- 
ered that thick [indicating] on the top of the barrel, and the maggots were 
pressed as tiat as that piece of paper. My own opinion is the oil was 
pressed out of that; that is all I can say. 

The Chairman. Where did this come from ? 

Mr. Brown. From Baltimore. I bought it from Mr. Stinchcomb, who 
was the agent here w^ho was buying the fat. 

Senator Jones. Did he send the fat to Baltimore? 

Mr. Brown. He shipped the fat then to Baltimore, but since then 
they have been steaming it here and getting the oil out. 

Senator Jones. He bought all kinds of fat ? 

Mr. Brown. Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. He made oleomargarine out of all sorts ? 

Mr. Broavn. No, sir ; the oleomargarine fat did not go in. We had 
to keep our beef fat as clean as we could, but in hanging up a bullock 
in a slaughtering house the floor is not very clean ; the entrails fall out 
on the floor, the fat is wiped all over the floor, and it is impossible to 
keep it clean the way we work there. 

Senator Jones. Does this establishment at Georgetown make any 
imitation butter? 

Mr. Brown. No, sir. 

Senator Jones. They do not make the oleomargarine as a product, 
or imitation butter ? 

Mr. Brown. No, sir; but they make the oil and ship it away in bar- 
rels. 

Senator Jones. And that is made into butter ? 

Mr. Brown. Yes; I suppose it is made into butter. I know they 
ship it to these oleomargarine firms, because I saw the letter over there 
that the clerk showed me last summer. 

Senator Jones. That was from the oleomargarine firm? 

Mr. Brown, Yes, sir. 

Senator Jones. And he said that he was using that oil for the pur- 
pose of manufacturing oleomargarine? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 223 

Mr. Brown. He said this : " Please be more careful, and tell your 
meu to keep their fat sweeter ; the last oil we could scarcely use ; it 
was mighty moldy," or something of the kind. I know that fat, if it 
lies over night, gets very moldy, and of course the oil must smell so; 
musty and close. 

Semitor Jones. You do not know whether fat could be used after it 
is in that condition to make oleomargarine or uot'? 

Mr. Brown. No, sir ; I do not know anything about it, only I know 
I would not like to eat the oil that is taken out of our fat. The fat that 
we cut in the market there at our stalls, when trimming meat, we throw 
in the baskets under the stalls, and after market is over we tind it is all 
covered with green flies. 1 have seen the fly-blows as thick as the end 
of my finger in bunches. 

The Chairman. Mr. Webster wants to make a short statement in 
addition to what he has already said. 

ADDITIONAL STATEMENT OF GEORGE H. WEBSTER. 

Mr. Webster said : I desire simply, Mr. Chairman, to explain to 
the committee why tallow has ruled so exceptionallj^ low during the last 
few years, as I understood the question was asked yesterday and was 
not satisfactorily answered. The fact that the price of tallow has ruled 
especially low during the past few years is due to natural causes well 
known to the trade, and is not in any way attributable to the manufact- 
ure of oleo oil. The markets of Great Britain and France, which are 
the principal consuming markets for tallow, have been oversupplied 
with Eussian tallow and that from South America, and when we remem- 
ber that in South America cattle are often killed for their hides ;)ud 
tallow alone, the reason for the low j)rice is obvious. 

In addition to this, tallow has to compete with other illuminating and 
soap-making products, tending to depreciate its value. The light from 
petroleum has almost superseded the old-fashioned tallow candle, while 
the products of petroleum furnish various materials for making candles 
which are far cleaner, brighter, and nearly or quite as cheap as tallow 
candles. 

Tallow has still another formidable competitor in cotton-seed oil, 
which is so largely used for soap-making in this country and in Europe, 
and which sells at from 1 to 2 cents a pound less than tallow. We 
have marketed the most of our production of tallow in this country for 
several years past, for the reason that the price has been higher iu 
Chicago than anywhere else, often actually higher than in New York, 
and relatively higher than the foreign markets. We sometimes get an 
occasional foreign order, which we are able to fill by a reduction of 
freight, and perhaps a clipping in exchange, a brokerage, or something 
of that kind. But the exports of tallow have been remarkably light 
for several years past for the reasons I have submitted. The export of 
tallow for the ten months of the fiscal year of 1885 ending April 30 
were 2,800,000 pounds, and for the ten months of the fiscal year ending 
April 30, 1886, the^' were only a little over 1,000,000 pounds. We have 
made sales as large as that, at one time, to J. S. Kirk & Co., of Chicago. 
So that the exports of tallow have been a mere bagatelle for several 
years past, and the reason is because the markets of Europe have been 
oversupplied, and because it has these formidable competitors to con- 
tend against. 

The Chairman. Just one question. Suppose American tallow had 
continued to be made, and as of good quality as it used to be before 



224 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

oleo oil was extracted, would not the price of American tallow remain 
higher than it is now and maintain its hold on the foreign markets to a 
certain extent ? 

Mr. Webster. I am glad you asked me that question. I do not think 
it would. I think our tallow would bring just as much money for the 
purposes for which tallow is nsed as it would have brought at any time 
within the past few years. Yesterday I was unable to be present, but 
I understand the question was brought up about stearine, whether the 
stearine ought to be figured as enhancing the value of cattle, when it 
would be in tallow anyhow. Of course it would. T3ut there is a differ- 
ence in the value of stearine. As oleo oil is of high grade, and higher 
in value than common tallow, so is stearine from oleo oil of a better 
quality, aiul consequently higher in value than stearine from common 
tallow. We ]>ress considerable common tallow to obtain tallow oil for 
lubricating purposes, and we get the stearine which we sell for soap- 
making. But we always get from 2 to 3 cents a pound more for our 
oleo stearine than for this tallow stearine. 

The Chairman. Is not stearine used very largely for soap and candle 
making? 

Mr. Webster. Yes, we sell a great deal to soap and candle manu- 
facturers in Milwaukee and around Chicago. I have a couple of affi- 
davits that I would like to offer in connection with the testimony we 
have submitted, and also the following memorandum : 

Estimates submitted btj Mr. Webster. 

Pounds of oleomargarine and bntterine made in Chicago and 

vicinity during year ending June 1, 1SH6 18,000,000 to 20,000,000 

The same product made in the whole United States during 

the same time 32,000,000 to 35,000,000 

In the West the manufacture of butterine predominates, while in the 
East the reverse is the case : so that I believe the aggregate out-turn 
of each product is about equally divided. 

Tbe manufacture of butterine is only carried on during nine months 
of the year, or from September 1 to June 1. 

The following affidavits were also submitted by Mr. Webster as a 
part of his statement: 

State of Illinois, Cook Count}/, ss. : 

Philip D. Armour, being first duly sworn, deposes and says that he is a resident of the 
city of Chicago, in the State of Illinois, and that he is a member of the firm of Armour 
ifeCo. 

Deponent further says that said firm of Armour & Co. in the course of their busi- 
ness makes and sells oieomargaiinc and butterine, and that this deponent knows of 
his own knowledge the materials and the methods used by said firm in the making of 
said products. They are as follows: 

mp:thods of manufacture. 

The fat is taken from the cattle in the process of slaughtering, and after thorough 
washing is placed in a bath of clean, cold water, and surrounded with ice, where it is 
allowed to i-emain until all animal heat has been removed. It is then cufc into small 
pieces by machinery and cooked at a temperature of about 150 degrees, until the fat, 
in liquid form, has separated from ihe tibrine or tissue, then settled until it is per- 
fectly clear. Then it is drawn into graining vats and allowed to stand a day, wheji 
it is ready for the presses. The pressing extracts the stearine, leaving the remaining 
product, which is commercially known as oleo oil, which, when churned with cream 
or milk, or both, and with usually a proportion of creamery butter, tbe whole being 
properly salted, gives the new food product oleomargarine. 

In making butterine we use neutral lard, which is made from selected leaf lard, in a 
very similar manner to oleo oil, excepting that no stearine is extracted. This neutral 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS, 225 

iard is cured in salt briue for forty-eight to seventy hours, at an ice-water tempera- 
ture. It is then taken, and, with the desired proportion of oleo oil and hue butter, 
is churned with cream and milk, producing an article, which, when properly salted 
and packed, is ready for market. 

In botli cases coloring matter is used, which is the same as that used by dairymen 
to color their butter. At certain seasons of the year, viz, in cold weather, a small 
quantity of salad oil made from cotton-seed is used to soften the texture of the prod- 
uct, but this is not generally used by us. 

Deponent further says that no other material or substance, except as above stated, 
is used by Armour &. Co. in making oleomargarine or butteriue. 

Deponent further says that he has read the statement made in a report of the Com- 
mittee on Agriculture to the House of Representatives, purporting to give the mate- 
rials used in making oleomargarine and butteriue, and he says that none of the ma- 
terials or substances therein enumerated are used by Armour & Co. in making said 
producis '^r either of them, except as herein stated. 

Deponent further says that he has read a letter dated May 19, 1886, signed Armour 
& Co., Swift A- Co., George H. Hammond & Co., N. K. Fairbank & Co., and Samuel 
W. Allerton, a copy of which is hereto attached, and he says that the same is the let- 
ter of the parties whose names are attached thereto, and that the statements therein 
juade so far as the same relate to Armour & Co. are trne, and so far as they relate to 
the other parties signing said letters, he, upon information, believes them to be true. 

And this deponent further deposes and says that no ingredient is or ever has been 
used by said firm of Armour tt Co. in the manufacture of said oleomargarine and but- 
teriue which is in anv wav injurious to health. 

PHILIP D. ARMOUR. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me tliis 22d day of May, 1886. 

[SEAL.] " ' EVERETT WILSON, 

Notary Public. 



State of Illinois, Cook County, ss; 

Gustavus F. Swift, being tirst duly svvoru, deposes and says that he is a resident 
of the town of Lake, in the State of Illinois, and that he is a member of the firm of 
Swift & Co. 

De)>onent further says that said firm of Swift & Co. in the course of their business 
makes and sells oleomai'gariue and butteriue, and that this deponent knows of his 
own knowledge the materials and the methods used by said firm in the making of 
8aid products. They are as follows : 

.METHODS OF MANUFACTURE. 

The fat is taken from the cattle in the process of slaughtering, and after thorough 
washing is placed in a bath of clean, cold water and surrounded with ice, where it is 
allowed to remain until all animal heat has been removed. It is then cut into small 
pieces by machinery and cooked at a temperature of about 150-^ until the fat in litjuid 
form has separated from the fibrine or tissue ; then settled until it is perfectly clear. 
Then it is drawn into draining vats and allowed to stand a day, when it is ready for 
the presses. The pressing extracts tlie stearine, leaving the remaining product, which 
is commercially known as oleo oil, which, when churned with cream or milk, or both, 
and with usually a proportion of creamery butter, the whole being properly salted, 
gives the new food product, oleomargarine. 

In making butteriue we use neutral lard, which is made from selected leaf lard in 
a very similar manner to oleo oil, excepting that no stearine is extracted. This 
neutral lard is cured in salt brine for forty-eight to seventy hours at an ice-water 
temperature. It is then taken and, with the desired proportion of oleo oil and fine 
butter, is churned with cream and milk, producing an article which when properly 
salted and packed is ready for market. 

In both cases coloring matter is used, which is the same as that used by dairymen to 
color their butter. At cex'tain seasons of the year, viz, in cold weather, a small 
quantity of sesame oil or salad oil, made from cotton seed, is used to soften the text- 
ure of the product. 

Deponent further says that no other material or substance except as above stated 
is used by Swift & Co. in making oleomargarine or butteriue. 

Deponent further says that he has read the statement made in a report of the 
Committee on Agriculture to the House of Representatives, purporting to give the 
materials used in making oleomargarine and butteriue, and he says that none of the 
materials or substances therein enumerated are used by Swift & Co. in making said 
products, or either of them, except as herein stated. 

17007 OL 15 



226 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Deponent further says that he has read a letter, dated May 19, 1886, signed Armour 
& Co., Swift & Co.,Geo. H. Hanmioud & Co., N. K. Fairbank «t Co., and Samuel W, 
Allt-rton, a coi»y of which is hereto attached, and he says that the same i.s the letter 
of the parties whose names are attached theret.», and that the statement therein 
made, so far as the same relate to Swift &. Co., are true, and so far as they relate to 
the other parties signing said letters, he, upon information, helieves them to be true. 

And this deponent further deposes and says that no ingredient is or ever has been 
used by said firm of Swift & Co. in the manufactnre of said oleomargarine and 
buttt riue which is in anv way injurious to health. 

OUSTAVUS F. SWIFT. 

Subscribed and swoin to before me this <!2d day of May, 1880. 

[SEAL.] D. E. HARTWELL, 

Sotary ruhlic. 

Chicago, May 19, 1886. 

So much misapprehension seems to exist in the public mind regarding the compo- 
nent parts and process of manufacture of oleomargarine and butteriue that, in view 
of the false and exaggerated stateuients and "reports" engendered and i)romulgated 
by the so-called " dairy interest," the nndersigne<), beingamongthe largest mauufactn- 
lers in the country ol these new " food jn-oducts," consider the )>resent an oi)portune 
time for laying the matter frankly before the people, and before Congress, where 
prohibitory legislation is now being sought, in the hope that a full statement of the 
actual facts concerning these much abused articles may insure a fair hearing and 
tend to remove the false impressions which may have been created by the misstate- 
ments of interested persons. 

Physicians, chemists, and health officers in various parts of the country have pro- 
nounced them wholesome articles of food, in no way deleterious to health; and the 
daily increasing demand lor them shows their hold upon popular favor, not as imita- 
tions of butter, but as new food products and most desirable substitutes for the me- 
dium grades of butter. 

The report of the Conuuittee on Agriculture to the House of Representatives ac- 
comjianying the bill reported by it is so manifestly unfair that we are sure that its 
effect will be destroyed by its own absurdity. Of' thehfry alleged ingredients men- 
tioned in the report only three are ever used, and those so changed and improved in 
character from what the report would lead the i)ublic to believe that they practically 
make the whole list a falsehood. The component parts of oleomargarine and but- 
teriue are oleo oil, neutral lard, fresh cream, and milk — some makers use buttermilk — 
choice creamery butter, tine dairy salt, and clear cold water. The coloring matter 
used is precisely the same as that universally used by all dairymen and butter-makers. 
At certain seasons of the year a very small quantity of tine salad oil, which is pro- 
duced irom selected cotton seed, is occasionally, but not generally, used to soften the 
texture of the product. The oleo oil above mentioned is made from the choicest fats 
of beef cattle, rendered at an approximate temperature of 150 degrees. The neutral 
is made from selected leaf lard only, and rendered in a similar way and at about 
the same temperature, producing a clear and odorless product, which is put into a 
bath of clean, c(dd brine, containing nothing but salt and water, for forty-eight hours; 
after which, with the proper projiortious of oleo oil and the finest creamery butter, the 
product is churned with cream and milk, salted and colored, and packed for market. 
We use nothing else. 

This is all there is concerning the manufacture of these products, and about which 
political dairymen have published so many falsehoods. We unhesitatingly affirm 
that these products are not made by any secret process, nor under any '"patent" 
whatever. While it is true that several i)atentH for making butteriue were obtained 
a few years ago, in order to secure Government protection against the French Mege 
patent prior to its expiration, we do not, nor do we know of any manufacturer who 
does, make use of any of the processes covered by those patents. Our factories are 
always open for public inspection, as hundreds of people can testify, and we con- 
sider'such visitations as marks of special favor. We are ready and willing tofiirnish 
to members of Congress, or to any conmiittee they may appoint, all detailed informa- 
tion wliicli they may desire, both as to the materials used and the whole process of 
making these products. The manufacture of these articles is practically an open 
industry in Europe, and it is a positive fact that in this country it increases the value 
of beef-cattle fully $3 per head, by the utilization of the oleo oil above described ; and 
in addition to all these points in favor of the articles themselves, their manufacture 
is a legitimate industry which benefits both the consumer and the farmer, and de- 
serving of positive protection rather than attempted destruction. We are very will- 
ing that these products shall stand on their own merits, and we do not oppose meas- 
ures honestly intended to bring about that result, but we do protest against legislation 



TMITATION DAIKY PKODUCTS. 227 

by Congress prohibitory in its character and intended to crush out one industry in 
favor of another. 

In corroboration of our statements we append copies of letters written by competent 
authKritit-s who have recently examined these products and the method of working 
them, and hope that they may assist in carrying conviction to all minds, aside from 
the assurances we have herewith respectfully submitted. 

ARMOUR & CO. 

SWIFT & CO. 

GEO. H. HAMMOND & CO. 

N. K. FAIRBANK Al CO. 

SAM'L W. ALLERTON. 



STATEMENT OF JOHN A. M'BRIDE. 

Mr. John A. McBride, of Sussex County, ^ew Jersey, next ad 
dressed the committee. 

I am a farmer by occupation. I do not intend to detain the commit 
tee long, because I understand the time is limited. I have not come 
here with any prepared speech, but I have come in the interest of the 
farmers — not only those of the county in which I live, bat in behalf ol 
the farmers of this nation. It is a fact that I think none of vou will 
dispute, that it is seldom, if ever, that the farmers of the United States 
come to Congress and appeal for help. The^' remain at home, attend 
to their work, pay their proportion of the taxes, and trust to yon to 
look after their interests, and it is only on an occasion like this that 
there is any exception to this rule. Why is it? It is because an in 
dustry — not an honest, honorable industry — has grown up which threat 
ens to supplant an honest and honorable industry. 

One thing connected with this matter appears to me very significant, 
and that is that while the advocates of oleomargarine object to anj- law 
restricting the traffic in it, and claim that it is a healthfal product, that 
it is an honest competitor with butter and the dairy interests, yet at 
the same time not one of them will eat it. Now if oleomargarine is 
healthful as an article of food, as they say it is, if it is better than 
this poor batter, if it can be bought so much cheaper, why not eat it 
instead of eating butter ? I had a little experience in the New Jersey 
legislature this last winter, and had to combat some of the arguments 
then put forward. An oleomargarine bill was introduced there and 
passed, and the same arguments were heard then that we hear now; 
that oleomargarine was a healthful article of food; that it was an honesi 
competitor with the dairy interests ; and yet at the same time none 
of them eat it. The trouble is. Senators, that this article is not sold 
upon its merits ; I make that assertion. The dairy commissioner of 
the State of New Jersey, for the past two months, has been making ex- 
aminations at diffen^nt places in the State, and finds that the dealers 
have not been selling oleomargarine as oleomargarine, but they have 
been selling it as first-(;lass dairy butter. 

Now I wish to answer the arguments of the gentlemen in reference to 
beef cattle. While the price of beef cattle may have advanced in the 
West, it has decreased in the East proportionately. While milch cows 
may be in demand in the West, their value has decreased proportion- 
ately in the East. While land may have, as they say it has, advanced 
in the West, land in my own county of Sussex and in the county of 
Orange, which Mr. Richardson represented here yesterday, and other as 
fertile counties as exist in the civilized world, that a year ago brought 
$100 an acre, to-day will not average $50 an acre under the hammer, or 
at their cash value. And I think the chairman of this committee will 



228 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

bear out my assertion that it lias (lecreasf<l in value in the counties of 
JSaint Lawrence and Herkimer in his own State. I wish to say that the 
gentlemen who appeared before the committee and said that the farmers 
in Saint Lawrence and Herkimer Counties could not to day make a thou- 
sand ])ounds of butter, and that the reason why butter had so depre- 
ciated in i>ri('e was the fact that the farmers theie had forgotten how to 
inake butter, were using an argument I listened to last winter and which 
has been rejieated here today. In other words, they would have you 
believe that the farmers of this country have forgotten everything tliey 
ever knew, and the reason why butter is low and farm products de- 
pressed is because the farmers of this nation have not common sense. 

Another jioint whi<;h to me is significant. If it is of such importance 
to the farmers of the West that this bill should not become a law, why 
have they not ]»etitioned Congress against it". Has a single petition 
come from the farmers of the West asking for the defeat of this bill? 
Are not those here who are advocating it either directly or indirectly 
interested in the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine itself? While 
on the other hand ])etitions by the thousand have come from the farm- 
ers of the East asking for the passage of this bill. I say that fact of 
itself certainly is significant. However, as you have but little time to 
listen to further argument, 1 will not detain you longer. 

The Chairman. If you can give us any facts in regard to the sale of 
oleomargarine in your own State, we will give you the time to state them 
and the committee will be glad to hear you. 

Mr. McBride. The facts are simply as I get them from the dairy 
commissioner. We had a law passed in our State last winter and un- 
der it a daily commissioner was ai)poiiited to see that the law was prop- 
erly and thoroughly executed. As I have stated, the opponents of the 
hill claimed that oleomargarine could be sold ni)on its merits, and that 
if sold upon its merits it would be bought equally with butter; that 
they were selling it on its merits. Now the facts are to the contrary. 
One of the deputies made an investigation of the matter at Perth Am- 
boy and he found that nearly every individual who was selling oleo- 
margarine was selling it, not as oleomargarine, but as prime dairy but- 
ter. 

Senator Jones. Is that since the law went into eliect ? 

Mr. MoBride. Yes, sir. It only went into effect this spring. I pre- 
sume they thought they would go on as long as they could without 
branding their goods, as the law prescribes. 

Senator Jones. What does your commissioner report as the effect of 
his etibrts to have oleomargarine sold for what it is ? 

Mr. McBride. His report is that when it is sold for what it is, people 
are not very apt to buy it. 

Senator Sawyer. If we can put this bill in such a shape that oleo- 
margarine will be sold, as it ought to be, for what it is, would not that 
remedy the trouble? 

Mr. McBride. Individually I never have objected to that at all; in 
fact, the law which we passed this winter provided that it should be 
sold for what it was, and with 'a certain brand. But what we do com- 
plain of is, that it is not sold for w^hat it is, but for prime dairy butter. 

Senator Jones. But since the passage of the law you refer to can you 
and do you enforce the law in New Jersey ; does your commissioner 
enforce it? 

Mr. MoBride. Yes, so far as I am informed. 

Senator Jones. And it accomplishes all that you wish ? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 229 

Mr. McBride. But, as I say, previous to that they ,had been selling 
it, not for what it was, but for prime dairy butter. 

Senator Jones. But the people are complying with the law, and he 
finds no difficulty in enforcin.^ it? 

Mr. McBride. So far as I am informed, people are complying with 
the law. 

Senator Jones. Have you a copy of the law? 

Mr. McBride. No, sir: I have not. 

Senator Jones. Could you furnisli us with a copy of it ? 

Mr. McBride. I could, but I would have to ride 300 miles to get it. 

Senator Jones. I would be glad if you would send us a copy of it, 
or perhaps we can find a copy here somewhere. 

Mr. McBride. Mr. Hires, the Representative from our district in 
Congress, informs me that he has a copy with him. 

Seuator Jones. Then I understand you to sa.y there is no difficulty 
in enforcing the State law, which requires that tliis article shall be sold 
in New Jersey for what it is ? 

Mr. McBride. I will answer to that that I have not seen the dairy 
commissiojier since the j)assage of the law. The oidy information I 
get is this: That in the investigation he has made he has found that 
they ha^e been selling this oleomargarine, as I said before, for prime 
dairy butter, and he has arrested those parties. Just what steps he 
has taken I am unable to answer you correctly now. 

Senator -lONES. Is the ATuerican Dairyman, ])ublished in New York, 
a reputable paper t 

]Mr. McBride. 1 cannot say. 

Senator Jones. I have received a copy of that paper with a marked 
article reporting what Dr. W. K. Newton said on the subject. 

Mr. McBride. That is the name of our commissioner. 

Senator Jones. He reports that the manufacturers, wholesale dealers, 
and jobbers sell these products for just what they are, and brand them 
as the law requires, and that they show their willingness to aid him in 
enforcing the law. In si)eaking of the retail dealers, he found that i>re- 
vious to that they had been selling this product for butter, but he says, 
it only being about two months since the law passed, many of the retail 
dealers have already fallen into line, and are selling oleomargarine and 
bntterine under its proper name and labeling each parcel accoiding to 
law. And then this paper goes on to say that the law is being eti"ectu- 
ally enforced. So that I sup]>ose there is no difficulty in regulating this 
matter when the States choose to do so. 

Mr. McBride. It occurs to me that while we may have a State law, 
it would not do any harm if we had a general law also on the subject. 

Senator Jones, Would it do any good if the State law accomplishes 
the purpose ! 

Mr. McBride. Undoubtedly. I think the more penalties you place 
upon the improper manufacture and sale of it the better; that is my 
theory, and I think if you had witnessed what I have witnessed in the 
dairy districts you would be of the same opinion. 

Senator Blair. I do not understand that you claim that there has 
been any fair time allowed to test the law ? 

Mr. McBride. No, sir; I say the law only went into effect about two 
months ago, and I do not think there has been time enough to make a 
fair test of it. 

Senator Jones. Do you think it will be a failure? 

Mr. M'Bride. I could not answer that except iti this way : That 
the man who has charge of it in the State of New Jersey will make a 



230 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

success of it if it can be made a success by anybody. That is as far as 
I can go, for the experiment has not been tried ; it may be a failure or 
a success. 

Senator Jones. One of its effects, you think, would be the suppres- 
sion of the nianufacture of butteiine or oleomargfarine? 

Mr. Mc'Beide. That has not been my idea: my idea is, that if it is 
sold under j»roper restrictions, if peoi>le want to buy it and eat it, with 
the evidence that has been given before us this morning, I am perfectly 
willing they should do it, but I do not want it on my plate. 

The Chairman. How long has this law in New Jersey been in force"? 

Mr. McBride. Only about two months. 

The Chairman. There is not very much known then about its effects 
I imagine, as yet? 

Mr. McBride. As 1 have said, I cannot speak positively at all about 
it. It is an experiment; it may or may not be a success. But State 
laws so far have proved very ineffectual. 

Senator Jones. You do not mean in New Jersey ? 

Mr. McBride. Yes, sir. We had a i)rohibitory law in New Jersey, 
and the more they prohibited it the more they sold of it. 

Senator Jones. So you haAe tried another one ? 

Mr. McBride. Yes, sir; we have tried another one, and it may turn 
out in just the same way the first one did. 

The Chairman. Two or three gentlemen want to submit statements 
in writing, and may wish to make oral statements first. Those gentlemen 
we have nor heard will be i)ermitted in a day or two to submit anything 
that is proper, and it wdl go in to the testimony as their statements. 

Senator Blair. It ought to be understood that it will take a little 
time to get it into print, and they should not delay ju'esenting their 
statements. 

The Chairman. I understand ; they will have to be put in by to- 
morrow. 

ADDITIONAL STATEMENT OF W. S. TRUESDELL. 

Mr. W. S. Truesdell, of Saint Louis, vice-president of the Missis- 
sippi Valley Dairy and Cream Association said: 

I trust the committee will pardon me for inflicting myself upon them 
a second time. But I do it so that you may properly understand the 
general methods of the manufacture of butter in the West, in explana- 
tion of the remarks that have been made by the manufacturer from Bos- 
ton who is so largely engaged in the creamery business in Iowa. Those 
of you who have studied the development of the dairy interest in the 
Western States perhaps are acquainted with the fact that the system of 
creameries in general use in the Westein States is not the system that 
the gentlemen himself has adopted and which he has found so satisfac- 
tory and so successful. You are all aware that the system of creameries 
and dairying is the sucL-essor of grain raising in all our Western States. 
In other words, as the competition resulting from the development of 
new and fresh agricultural sections in the AVest has enlarged the pro- 
duction of grain in those sections, it has depreciated the value of the 
grain product to that extent tnat the older settled States have found 
it necessary to turn from that branch of agriculture to another; in other 
words, to so condense the product of their lands that by the reduction 
of the cost of transportation they can find it more profitable. 

]jy reason of the freshness, newness, and undeveh)|>ed condition of 
the dairying and creajnery interests in the.^e Northwestern States, aside 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 231 

from the limited section of Iowa iu which the g'entleman is iuterested, 
a gathered cream system is followed by the creamer^', which system is 
not that the farmer should bring his milk to the factory, involving" no 
exi)ense to the factory man, but that the factory man should send his 
teams into the country to the farmer, in many cases traveling a distance 
of 20 or 30 miles, getting the cream, bringing it back to his factory iu 
the shape of cream skimmed from the milk, and then manufacturing 
that cream into his product of butter. And in order that you may un- 
derstand the distinction between the two methods, 1 will say that while 
the gentleman has truthfully said to you this morning that they can 
maiuifacture their product at a cost to them of 3 cents a pound to put 
it in a marketable condition, tlie average cost of putting the cream from 
the hands of the farmer into a marketable shape in the form of butter 
under the gathered cream system of the Northwestern States is not less 
than 8 eents a pound. This I know from actual experience in tlie man- 
agement of two creameries, one for several years tbe largest run in the 
State of Iowa, manufacturing at one time as much as 2,200 pounds of 
butter a day, and the other in the northern part of the State of Illinois. 

The point I want to make is this, that while the gentleman is able to 
pay the farmer 50 cents a hundred for his milk, the average farmer in 
the States of Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and those sections of 
Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois that are working under the gathered- 
cream system does not receive but S or 10 cents per pound for his but- 
ter, even under the improved creamery system, whereas statistics will 
show that on the average produced in the past two years he has re- 
ceived from 15 to 16 cents a pound for his butter iu the shape of cream 
taken from his own cows at his own home, involving no trouble or ex- 
pense to him. 

I want to say just an a<lditional word. While the remarks of the gen- 
tleman from Boston would indicate from his successful experience in 
Northeastern Iowa that the creamery business is to-day asuccesslul one 
iu that State, I want to say to you and to him that if he has money in 
his pocket and wants to enlarge his experience in the creamery business 
I can invest that money for him to-day at 50 cenrs on the dollar on the 
cost of those creameries in ])erfected creamery buildings, fully and 
properly equipjyed for the manufacture of creamery butter, and I would 
buy buildings and plants that have been closed through the operations 
of oleomargarine manufactories. Those are facts. These men may 
laugh at them if they choose, but they are facts, and I know they are 
fair facts because I am intimately associated with the parties I si)eak 
of and know all about them. 

There is another ])oint I wish to emphasize, which was stated by tbe 
gentleman who addressed the committee a short time ago in regard to 
the source from which emanates the opposition to the measure we have 
presented to your consideration. There does not come before you, gentle- 
men, from any section of the country in which the agiicultural iuilusiry 
is the leading industry a single remonstrance against the passage of 
this bill. The resolutions that have been tendered to you are from 
Boards of Trade representing (jities in which the manufacture of the oleo 
product has become a leading industry. The facts which have been ])re- 
sented to you have been jiresented by men directly connected with those 
industries and those depending upon them, by the bankers who hiiiulle 
the money, by the cattlemen who sell the cattle to the oleo manutact- 
urers, and not by the representative business elements of those cities. 
I venture to sa>\ without fear of (contradiction, that I can go into Kansas 
City to-day, and can get the signatuies of nine out of every ten men 



232 IMITATION DAIRY PEODUCTS. 

■who handle dairy products against the petition that was sent up to you 
by the Live Stock Exchange of Kansas City. J have in my valise at 
the hotel the protest of the Chicago Produce Exchange and the assur- 
ance from an individual member of the Chicago Board of Trade that 
the action of the directors of those bodies is not the action of the bodies 
themselves, nor does it represent their sentiments. I have to say to 
you that the Board of Trade of the city of Saint Louis unanimously 
voted down the resolution ])resented to tbeni by the gentlemen repre- 
sented before you to-day, disapproving of the act now before you for your 
consideration. They unanimously voted down a petition to disapprove 
the bill. We were able to make them understand that the constituency 
which they rei)resented, the grand agricultural interest of the ISTorth- 
west were not i)rinie movers against the bill nor the prime opponents of it. 

But it does not seem to me necessary to use any arguments to con- 
vince gentlemen of your intelligence and knowledge about the agri- 
cultural development of this country, especially the great ]S^orthwest, or 
to show that there is no necessity for this new, man-devised, and man- 
discovered interest. The food that a wise Creator has provided for the 
use of man in the form of butter is certainly as good as, perhaps no 
better than, the product which the ingenuity of even these wise men 
has been able to discover. They tell us that were it not for the fact 
that oleo had been introduced in the market, butter would have been 
50 or GO cents a ])ound. Now, I want to say to you this: That the rea- 
son creamery butter sold in Boston last winter at 38 cents a pound, was 
that the manufacturer of oleomargarine and butterine made the price. 
I know it to be a fact — and I will state it under oath now if you choose 
or prove it by the records — that on the day butter advanced in Elgin 
.5 cents a pound last winter, it was freely and abundantly offered at 35 
cents a pound, and that the agents of the Chicago butterine manufact- 
urers said to these men who were offering butter at 35 cents, "you are 
fools ; we will take all your product at 40 cents." And I, as a i)urchaser 
of butter on the Elgin market under contract, was compelled to pay 40 
cents when the manufacturer wrote me, under his own hand, that he 
had expected to sell and had billed me that butter at 35 cents. It was 
not the scarcity of butter; it was the effort of the butterine men to 
falsify the market report in order to appreciate the value of their own 
product and bring it under the a}»preciated price of butter. 

In rci^ard to the ])roductive cajjacity of this country. Is there a ne- 
cessity for this new element and new industry which has been intro- 
duced? What is the design of it? Ls it to meet a want that the 
country has found in a deficiency of the butter supply! Is it to pro- 
vide a channel of industry for unemployed labor! Is it to strengthen 
the hands of the honest dealers of this country ? I claim, Mr. Chair- 
man and honorable gentlemen, that there is no such occasion as this. 
It is purely and simply a money-making project on the part of those 
engaged in it. Why, sirs, will you tell me what the productive capacity 
of these grand prairies of the Northwest is to be ? Is it possible to ar- 
rive at the possibilities of those acres now undeveloped as they would 
have develoj)ed under the natural impulse of the dairj- interest pre- 
vious to the introduction of this new element? In the State of Mis- 
souri ten years ago we had not one creamery in operation. Three years 
ago we built sixty creameries and within the i)ast two years we have 
not built three. While our State is prolific of minerals and a grand 
State for the production of grain, our farmers, in the limited experience 
in the past few years, have discovered that, without this unfair compe- 
tiMon which they have received from this new compound, it is the in- 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 233 

terest for them to euga^e iu. Look at the State of Iowa and see what 
the past ten years has done iu the development of her interests. 

Tlje Chairman. Do you thiuk Missouri is well adapted to dairying- 
purposes ? 

Mr. Truesdell. There is no question at all about it. Why, iu the 
State of Mississippi they are ruuning creameries successfully, aud when 
the gentlemen tell you tbat the dairy belt does not extend below the 
Ohio Eiver they make a mistake — that is an exploded notion. The State 
of Tennessee is just as well adapted to good dairying as the State of 
Illinois. 

The Chairman. And I suppose that is the case wherever the proper 
grasses are found? 

Mr. Truesdell. Yes, sir. Missouri, particularly the upper half of 
it, is capable of being so developed, and we are developing it more than 
in the southern part, but we have creameries located all through the 
State. The best butter I am handling to-day comes from the city of 
Saint Charles, in the State of Missouri. 

The Chairman. You are familiar with the creamery business in all 
its aspects f 

]\Ir. Trfesdell. Yes, sir; I am. 

The Chairman. Mrs. Smith, the president of the Woman's Labor- 
League, asks me to in(]uire of you whether any women are employed in 
the creameries in making butter, and if so, what proportion are women. 

Mr. Truesdell. Well, the number is not very large. In a great 
many of the creameries no women are employed. 

The Chairman. How many people are usually employed in a cream- 
ery ? 

Mr. Truesdell. From two to tive men, depending upon its pro- 
ductive capacity. A small creamery can be run by two butter-makers 
and a helper; a large one employs five. 

The Chairman. Are some women employed as butter-makers in tlie 
creameries"? 

]Mr. Truesdell. Yes, but very few. Some employ women as help- 
ers. Where a man is married, his wife is employed as a helper; but 
men are usually employed as butter-makers, while women are employed 
advautageously in the dairy, milking the cows and caring for the milk. 
We still employ women, but instead of putting her at the hard hibor of 
handling the dasher of the churn we simply ask her to milk the gentle 
and docile cow and relieve her of the more burdensome part of the 
work. 

The Chairman. The machinery does the work ! 

Mr. Truesdell. Yes, the machinery does the work which women 
had to do in years gone by. 



STATEMENT OF GEORGE M. HARRIS. 

Mr. GeorGtE M. Harris, of Salem, Mass., then addressed the com- 
mittee : 

I have heard a good deal said iu the jjast two days about the retail 
dealer, to the effect that the manufacturer of oleomargarine sells it liou- 
estly to the jobber and the jobber sells it honestly to the retailer, but 
that the retailer sells it dishonestly to the consumer. I am, gentlemen, 
one of those retailers. Until within the last fifteen months I was very 
much prejudiced against this article, but I found that I was k)sing trade,, 
and it seemed that the demand of the people was for this fresh-made 
and fresh-flavored article. Accordingly I put it on my counter, and I 



234 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

am selling it strictly in conformity with the Massachusetts State law, 
which requires tliat the wrapper shall be stamped like this [exhibiting 
a piece of ]>aper with the word "butterine" printed on it], an<l I have 
here some ])hotogTaplis of my ice chest, which show yon how the article 
is displayed there and just how it is sold. 

The Chairman. How much of it do you sell? 

Mr. Harris. I supi)Ose from twenty to twenty-five packages a week, 
varying from 10 to 30 jiounds each. 

The Chairman. Do yon sell creamery batter also? 

]Mr. Harris Yes, sir, a great deal more of that. 

The Chairman. How mnch more of it 1 

Mr. Harris. I su])pose we sell half again as much perhaps. 

The Chairman. What price do you get for the l)utterine ? 

Mr. Harris. Where wo cut it out we get 17 cents, and 15 cents by 
the package. 

The Chairman. What do you i)ay for it at wholesale ? 

Mr. Harris. From lOJ to 11 cents— less than I have been paying. 

The Chairman. What do you get for butter ? 

Mr. Harris. We are getting now from 22 to 32 cents a pound. I 
have one class of butter made at a little creamery at Ipswich a dozen 
miles from my f^ity which the farmers have contributed to and built. I 
bny butter from them during the months of June, July, and August, at 
28 cents a pound and I retail at 32 cents. 

The Chairman. An increase in price of 4 cents a pound ? 

Mr. Harris. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. You make a larger profit than that on your oleo- 
margarine I 

Mr. Harris. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. Why not sell the oleomargarine for an advance of 
1^ cents a pound, and give the poor man the benefit of the difference'? 

Mr. Harris. 1 could not afford to do that. There is at least a loss 
of a cent a pound in cutting out the butter and the butterine. It is my 
belief, based upon the figures from my own books, that dairy products 
have suffered less in the reduction of price in the last five years 
than almost any other iirominent article of food we handle. I have a 
few figures here, retail i)rices taken from my books in 1881 and in 1886, 
each at about the middle of Maj', I think. We were retailing the best 
grade of flour at $9 a barrel five years ago ; in 1886 it was $6 a barrel. 
Five years ago potatoes sold at $1.20 a bushel; this year at 90 cents a 
bushel. Pork lard was selling at 13 or 14 cents five years ago ; now it 
is 9 to 10 cents. Granulated sugar was selling then for 10 and 11 cents 
a pound ; this year it is 7 cents. Pea beans per peck, 70 cents, five 
years ago ; now they are 50 cents. Diamond creamery butter sold then 
for 33 cents; now it is 30 cents, or was when these figures were taken. 
Five years ago cheese was selling for 17 cents; this year it sells for 14 
cents. Aiul it seems to me that butter has sutteied less really tiian 
many of these other articles, and thar the depreciation is due, not to 
the com])etition of oleo, but to the natural shrinkage of value that has 
"come to almost every article of merchandise. 

The Chairman. What is the necessity of the retailer charging twice 
as much for the products ; what makes the difference in the wholesale 
and the retail price ; you say you sell cheese at 14 cents ? 

Mr. Harris. Yes, sir; when I left home it was 12 cents ; it was then 
14 cents. 

The Chairman. The wholesale price for fine cheese has been at 6 
to 7 cents a pound. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 235 

Mr. Harris. I have been able to buy nothing that is good, nothing- 
that would suit my trade, at less than cents. 

The CHAiR:.rAN. The best cheese made in America ha.s been soM at 
from 6^ to 7 cents at Utica and Little Falls in l>oxes. 

Mi-. Harris. 1 have to buy for my retail trade in small quantities, 
an<l have to pay 9 cents in Boston. 

The Chairman. Do yon think- all the retail dealers in your vieiMity 
sell oleomar<>arine tor what it is ' 

Mr. Harris. No, sir, I do not ; within the ])asr six weeks there liave 
been two prosecutions ; one of the parties was fined $100 for selling 
butterine as binter, and the other one the same amount, because he 
did not stamp the wiap[)er in which he i)ut his butterine as it should 
liave been stamped, but wrote on it with a pencil. 

The Chairman. J^o yon believe it is senerally sold for what it is 
tluou^^hout the State; have yon any knowledge on that subject ? 

Ml. Harris. I ha\ c no knowledge on that subject. 

The Chairman. Tlu>se cases you s])eak of you knew about? 

Mr. Harris. I knew of them thiough the papers. 

Senatoi' JonI':s. According to your observation is the law of Massa- 
chusetts successfully enforced by the inspector ? 

Ml'. Harris. T tiiink so. I have great confidence in the inspector at 
our ))lace. I lecolleet one instance where a lady who had traded with 
me for many years returned some butter to me that she had ])ai<l 25 
cents a pound for and said she could not use it. I asked her if she had 
ever tried butterine. She said no; that she was prejudiced against it; 
but she bought 2 jiounds of it and took it home to try it. Since that 
time 1 have sold her every two weeks a 20-pound package of it. She 
uses it for cooking, but not on the table. 

Senator Blair. You have shown us a photograph of your refrigerator. 
Is that a glass inclosure at the front of it? 

Mr. Harris. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. If I should go there and look at the different arti(?les 
of butterine and good butter through that glass inclosure could I tell 
the difference between the articles ? 

Mr. Harris. I think not. 

Senator Blair. If by any chance it should so happen that tiie con- 
tents of the butterine inclosure should get into the dairy inclosure, and 
the markings should remain the same, if you should reverse the con- 
tents, I would buy my butterine at 25 cents a jjound and my good 
dairy butter at 17 cents a pound"? 

Mr. Harris. If such an accident should happen you would be 
likely to. 

Senator Blair. That is so far as my observation or capacity to de- 
tect the butter is (joncerned? 

Mr. Harris. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. In other words, I could not tell the difference between 
the i)roducts ? 

Mr. Haruis. I don't know how your taste may be. 

Senator Blair. Suppose that both inclosures contained butter, and 
that I was dealing with a dishonest man, is there any way in which I 
could protect myself, in the effort to get the good dairy butter, from an 
actual ])urchase of butterine? 

Mr. Harris. I think not if you were dealing with dishonest men. 

Senator Blair. Then all these contrivances which the law has pro- 
.vided thus far in the way of labeling goods of that character are really 
no protection to the i>nrchaser as against a dishonest dealer ? 

Mr. Harris. 1 thiidv not, sir. 



236 IMITATION DAIRY PEODUCTS. 

Senator Blair. But if butter was one color and butteriue auother 
color, I could tell them apart just as well as you could ! 

Mr. Harris. Yes, sir ; very well iudeed. But no man would buy that 
article, if it was some foreign color, to put on his table. Would not that 
discriminate unjustly against the poor man, who would otherwise buy 
thi> article at a low price, but who would not buy it if it was colored ? 

S«^nator Blair. That is a matter of argument. I should not think 
it would be any injury to the poor man ; both products are healthful, as 
the e\ idence proves. There was some question raised upon that pointy 
but we will assume thej' are both healthful, one as much so as the other, 
the one costing 30 cents and the other 15 cents. We eat articles of 
food of different hues; we eat pink ice cream and other substances. I 
imagine in time the i^rejudice would disappear. 

Mr. Harris. I think not against the color. 

Senator Blair. You think that would remain a permanent objection? 

Mr. Harris. It seems to me it would. Why, they object to pale 
butter ; unless the butter is properly colored to come up to their idea, 
they object to it. 

Tiie Chairman. The consumer, then, under your law has not much 
protection against the dishonesty of the retail dealer ? 

Mr. Harhis. I do not know that there is. 

The Chairman. There is nothing in tlie world to prevent you, if you 
are so disposed, between the visits of the inspector, from taking the 
good dairy butter out of the butter tub and putting it in the place of 
the butterine, and the reverse, without anybody's knowing it except 
yourself? 

Mr. Harris. No, sir ; I think not. But there is nothing to prev^ent 
a dealer from adulterating his coffee if he chooses to, except as a matter 
of conscience. 

Senator Blair. There are laws against obtaining money by false pre- 
tenses, and there is no doubt a performance of this kind could be pun- 
ished criminally. But the evil seems to be one of the incapacity of the 
consumer to know what he is buying, and if anything could be done to 
enlighten him upon that point, it might )>e worthy of consideration. 

Mr. Harris. But if there is an article that a poor man wishes to buy — 
and they do come to my place and call for it — it does not seem fair for 
the law to say that it shall be colored, so that when he puts it on his 
table everybody who sees it there will say it is butterine or oleomar- 
garine. 

Senator Blair. Perhaps it is unfair to legislate at all upon the sub- 
ject. 

The following letter from Mr. Harris is explanatory of his testimony : 

[Office of I. P. Harris &. Co.. wholesale and retail grocers.] 

Salem, Mass., Jtote 19, 1866. 
Dear Sir: Witli your kind perniission, I desire to correct au impre.ssiou which I 
fear the committee received from my statement before them ou the 18th iustnnt (at 
the heariug on the oleo bill), in regard to the amount of butterine which we are 
handling. 

I stated that we were selling from twenty to twenty-tive packages of butterine 
"weekly, and about half as many again of genuine 1>utter. 

Tliese figures are substantially correct in regard to the number of packages, but 
the butterine is chiefly in 10-pound tubs, while the real butter is chiefly in 50-pound 
tubs. This, of cour.se, would show that our .sales of genuine butter are ^ ery largely in 
excess of our sales of butteriue. 

Hoping that this maybe added to or included in my statement, 
I am, verv re.sj)ectfullv, vours, 

GEO. M. HARRIS, 
Hon. Warneb Miller. Of I. P. Harri Co. 

Chairman Senate Commiitee on AqrkuJture, 



IMITATION PAIRY PRODTTCTS. 237 



STATEMENT OF F. K. MORELAND. 

Mr. F. K. MoRELAND, of Ogdensburg', N. Y., counsel of the Ameri- 
can Agricultural and Dairy Association, then addressed the committee : 

Mv. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee : 1 just wish to take a 
few moments to answer an objection which has been urged against this 
measure that it is unconstitutional. I have prepared a [)aper which I 
will leave with t1ie committee, in which I have cited some authorities, 
and 1 wish to take the position that the national Governmeni lias the 
l)o\ver to regulate interstate commerce, foreign comnu^rce, and tliat the 
State cannot; that they have the power to tax an objectionable nianu- 
£acture in order to regulate it and give other industries a fair chance. 
In my prepared argument I take the following ground : 

It is rare in the history of this or any other coiintiy that theie has 
been such a denumd for any i)articidar legislation as the demand dur- 
ing the present Congress for legislation to prevent the total destruction 
of the dairy industry. This demand at first but a '• still, small voiije," 
has grown to a clarion tone — at first, but like the muruuiring of a sum- 
mer breeze, has become the irresisteble power of the tempest. This de- 
mand from the people of the country, the whole country, to their rep- 
resentatives in Congress assembled has been most emphatically mani- 
fested, and has found exi)ression in divers ways, and Cougrl^ss has done 
well indeed to take heed and devote to this matter the consideration it 
deserves. 

It was thought at one time, and this belief held sway for many years, 
that the different Suites had ample power in the premises. It was be- 
lieved that the States had ample power to legislate satisfactorily on all 
questions pertaining to the interests of the farmers. The farmers have 
hitherto manifested an agreeable quiescence equaled only by the ready 
willingness of the different States to furnish any legislation that might be 
required. I do not believe that the dairymen of the country have any 
rights which the diftereut States are unable to protect, but the protection 
of the dairymen of the country in the enjoyment of the rights and privi- 
leges they are in justice and good government and under the Consti- 
tution of the country entitled to, is one thing, and the prevention of a 
great national calamity is quite another matter. The protection of a 
languishing industry is one thing, the protection of the health of the 
entire people is quite another matter, and yet they are very closely re- 
lated. 

The dairy industry of the country is seeking relief and the health of 
the people demanding protection both in the same way and through the 
same medium, viz, the passage of a law regulating and restricting the 
sale of an imitation article made and sold fraudulently as and for butter. 
The dairymen of the country have suffered from a diminishing foreign 
trade, due to the well-grounded suspicion existing in the countries to 
which we have exported our dairy products that our butter was not an 
honest article; that it was guiltless of the refining associations of the 
churn, the dairymaid, the cow, and sweet-scented jjastures, nay, more, 
that it was the product of offal fat purified by nameless chemicals — a 
patented poison. 

The exjtorts of butter and imitations of butter do not to-day equal the 
amount of butter which we should export had it not been for the fact, 
well known in all our foreign markets, that we are making and export- 
ing vast quantities of oleomargarine. 



238 IMITATION DAIRY PRODICTS. 

The home coiisaraption of butter has also suffered to an alarming ex- 
t-eiit from the knowledge that much of the butter retailed over counters 
is not an honest article, and is an undesirable article of food. 

The States may be able to secure to the dairymen within the States 
the lights they are entitled to, although they have hitherto failed to do 
so: but they certainly ate unable to i)rotect the health of the entire 
people and the honor of our commeice abroad. So far as the States 
liave power, within the limits of their State constitutions, to legislate 
for the rights of dairymen, no State has yet gone too far to suit me. 
Let not the jealous defenders of State rights confound the protection of 
the dairy industry with the regulating of a great and wide-spread evil. 

Th(^ States have a perfect right to legislate for the protection of their 
own citizens; but when the different States attempt in different ways 
to regulate or control a thoroughly organized piracy, then the ineffect- 
ive legislation we have had in a dozen different States is the only nat- 
ural result. When the black tiag of organized piracy floating iu the 
breeze above soap factories that manufacture an article to be used as 
food, and which is so manufactured that it cannot be distinguished 
from butter, and is liable to be insidious poison, bears upon its sable 
folds the legend '• legitimate industry," the evil becomes too much for 
any State legislation. 

it is in proof on the statute books of all the States which have med- 
dled with this growiug evil, in the decisions of courts which have been 
compelled to declare such laws in many cases unconstitutional, iu 
flourishing oleomargarine factories, a depressed dairy industry, and im- 
poverished farmers, that no State legislation has as yet been able to 
meet this great question. At the national convention of the Amer- 
ican Agricultural and Dairy Association, held in New York City Feb- 
ruary 16, 17, and 18, 188C, the one all-absorbing topic for discussion 
was the possibility of protecting the consumers of butter from the fraud 
practiced upon them by manufacturers of and dealers in imitations of 
butter. At this convention every State in the Union to any extent in- 
terested in dairying was represented by accreditetl delegates. The gen- 
tlemen who had come from distant States to take part in the delibera- 
tions of the convention which was destined to torraulate a policy which 
would redeem the country from the citizens within the country were 
men not only largely acquainted with public affairs, but also intimate 
with the interest and welfare of their several States. Strong resolu- 
tions were adopted urging immediate effective action by Congress as 
the only possible means of protecting consumers iu their right to pure 
food and rescuing an imperiled industry. 

Of all the delegates at this convention no delegate from the oldest 
dairy State in the Union was more emphatic in condemning in unmeas- 
ured terms the gross injustice to honest industry, in selling oleomarga- 
rine for what it is not, than the delegates from the South. None of the 
delegates at this convention were more emphatic in their condemnation 
of the detestable, iniquitous crime of tampering with human food than 
the delegates from the Southern States, and this is not to be wondered 
at, for when it comes to a question of pure food we are all human. The 
argument has been made against this measure that it seeks to destroy 
one industry and thus protect another industry. This is not the fact. 
This measure seeks only to prevent one industry — if the manufacture of 
oleomagarine is an industry — from destroying another. 

It only seeks to lay the restraining hand of the law upon a business 
which is attempting to destroy a long established and important in- 
dustry. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 239 

The oppoueuts of this bill have treiited the country to a dissertation 
upon the rank injustice of legislation against the poor man. Oleomar- 
garine, the.y say, is "the poor man's butter." If this is the case it is 
either better or inferior to natural butter. Jf it is better tliau butier 
then it is a luxury, and the ap})etite of the ri(;h crave it ; if oleouuirga- 
rine is inferior in quality to natural butter why should it be foiste<l on 
the poor man, for there is no man so poor in this country earning daily 
wages and supporting a family but who desires tt) provide good, whole- 
some food for his table. If there is one thing more than another wdiich 
the poor man is jealous of, it is the butter he eats, and why should this 
not be so; he has the same faculties of taste and smell as his richer 
neighbor and the same good common sense, and I insist it is an insult 
to every laboring man in the country to say that oleomargarine is a poor 
man's food, when no i)Oor man would purchase it if he knew it. If oleo- 
margarine is the poor man's food, why all this care to make it resemble 
butter and sell it under the name of butter. To the delegates of the 
Southern States at the national dairy convention, much credit is due 
for shaping the policy of that convention and inaugurating the memo- 
rable contest which resulted so successfully in the House of Represen- 
tatives. The opponents of this measure have occujued many untenable 
positions. They have argued strenuously that the bill seeks to protect 
one industry at the expense of another. That it protects the dairyman 
against the manufacturer of oleomargarine ; that by burdening with 
taxation the legitimate industry of making oleomargarine the dairyman 
is unduly protected. This is necessary not for the purpose of destroj^- 
ing the manufacture of oleomargarine, but to prevent it destroying the 
manufacture of pure butter. 

Another untenable position was the benefit to the i)oor man, the labor- 
ing class, from the manufacture of cheap butter. This claim is an out- 
rage on common decency, for the product is never sold for what it is^ 
and if it were sold under its proper name the laboring man is the last one 
who would buy it for food. It is true that the manufacture of oleomar- 
garine has cheapened butter, but by indirection, by foisting upon the 
market 200,000,000 pounds a j^earof their products sold as butter, and 
thus creating an apparent overproduction, and an overproduction al- 
ways reduces the market, no matter the means by which it has been 
brought about. All these objections to the bill and many other equally 
untenable have been answered, and our opponents hurl at us the Consti- 
tution of the United States, not by sections, but the entire Constitution, 
and expect to crush at one fell blow the bill and its friends. The Con- 
stitution is a terrible weapon to invoke against a popular measure. A 
weapon to be handled with care. I have a high regard for the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, but a much higher regard for my own, and 
the Constitution will not suffer one-tenth as much by the passage of 
this bill as the public health will suffer if it is not passed. 

This bill does not propose to tax one industry to protect another; it 
merely proposes to tax a fraud and swindle, that honest industry may 
survive unjust competition ; and this taxation is not alone in the inter 
est of the dairy farmer, but in the interest of the entire people of the 
country, in the interest of all consumers of butter. It is an int^ult to the 
framers of our glorious Constitution to say that theConstitution shall not 
be read in the light of reason, interpreted by the aid of common sense,. 
and invoked by even-handed justice. I am, 1 confess, utterly unable to 
read the Constitution as it is read by the able opponents of this bill,, 
who have invoked the Coustitution to perpetuate a fraud. 



240 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

The bill is constitutional for several reasons; it is unconstitutional 
for no reason whatever. 

First. It is argued that this is a tax measure, and therefore uncou- 
stitutioual. This argument of our opponents is opposed to an unbroken 
line of <lecisions. 

Justice Story, who was one of our ablest expounders of the much- 
abused Constitution, says in his work on the Constitution, Book 1, 
pages G77-'78 : 

It will not do to assume that the clause was iuteuded solely for the purpose of rais- 
iug revenue, and then argue that, lieiug so, the power cannot be constitutionally ap- 
])lied to any other purposes. The very point in controversy is whether it isrestricted 
to purposes of revenue. That must be jiroved and cannot be assumed as the basis of 
reasoning. 

The language of the Coustitution is, " Congress shall have power to lay and collect 
taxes, duties, imposts, and excises." If the clause had stopped here and remained 
in this absolute form, there could not have been the slightest doubt ou the subject. 
The absolute power to lay taxes includes the power in e\ery form in which it may be 
used, and for every purpose to which the legislature may choose to apply it. This 
results from the very nature of such an unrestricted power. A fortiori, it might be 
applied by Congress to pvirposes for which nations have been accustomed to apply it. 
Now, nothing is more clear, from the history of commercial nations, than the fact that 
the taxing power is often, very often, applied for other purposes than revenue. 

It is often applied as a regulation of commerce. It is often applied as a virtual pro- 
hibition ui)on the importation of particular articles, for the encouragement and pro- 
tection of domestic products and industry ; for the support of agriculture, commerce, 
and manufactures ; for retaliation upon foreign monopolies and injurious restrictions ; 
for mere purposes of state policy and domestic economy : sometimes to banish a nox- 
ious article of consumption ; sometimes as a bounty upon an infant manufacture or 
•agricultural product ; sometimes as a temporary restraint of trade; sometimes as a 
suppression of particular employments ; sometimes as a prerogative xiower to destroy 
•competifion and secure a monopoly to the Government. 

If, then, the power to lay taxes, being general, may embrace and in the practice of 
nations does embrace all these objects, either separately or in combination, upon what 
foundation does the argument rest which assumes one object only, to the exclusioaof 
all the rest; which insists, in effect, that because revenues may be one object, there- 
fore it is the sole object of the power ; which assumes its own construction to be cor- 
rect because it suits its own theory, and denies the same right to others entertaining 
a different theory ? 

Is not oleomargarine a noxious article of consumption ? The original 
(process of M. Mege was harmless indeed in the light of modern science. 
He simply discovered the fact that the fat of dogs, horses, and cattle could 
be used as a substitute for butter. The great American nation, ever in 
advance, has done much better or worse — invented the science of " mak- 
ing butter," and out of what ? Go search the records of the Patent 
Office and learn the extent of American criminality, patented crime, for 
there are upwards of fifty dift'erent patents issued to make this stuff, 
and as usual in such patents the ingredients which enter into the arti- 
cles are given. Here is the list, and although all these articles may not 
be in a single sample of oleomargarine, the fact that any such articles are 
used for the purpose is quite apt to make people of sensitive taste ac- 
quire a distaste for an article which may or may not be imitation butter. 
Nitric acid (commoidy known as aquafortis), acetate of lead (better 
k)iown as sugar of lead), sulphate of lime, benzoic acid, butyric acid, 
glycerine, capsic acid, commercial sulphuric acid, tallow, butyric ether, 
castor oil, caul, gastric juice, curcurium, chlorate of potash, peroxide 
of magnesia, nitrate of soda, dr^- blood, albumen, saltpeter, borax, 
orris root, bicarbonate of soda, capric acid, sulphite of soda, pepsin 
lard, caustic i)otash, chalk, oil of sesame or benne, turnip-seed oil, oil 
of sweet almonds, stomach of pigs, sheep, or calves, mustard-seed oil, 
bicarbonate of potash, boracic acid, cotton-seed oil, alum, cows' udders, 
«aI-soda, farinaceous flour, carbolic acid, slippery elm bark, olive oil, 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 241 

bromo-choralum, oil of peanuts, sugar, caustic soda, aud sea salt. Can 
any vvlio reads this list of drujr which enters into the comi)osition, with 
sufficient intelligence to recognize the fact that some of them are deadly 
poisons, doubt for a moment that this is a noxious article of consump- 
tion ? 

Mr. Michaels, of New York City, a microscojiist, and once, if not now, 
editor of a scientitic jouinal, testifies that oleomargarine is simply un- 
cooked raw fat, never subjected to sufficient heat to kill parasites that 
are liable to be in it. He states that he has found in it tissue and mus- 
cle and cells of a suspicious nature, and that Mr. Sayler has also found 
in it positively identified germs of disease. 

The Hev. E. Huber, microscopist, of Richmond, Va., writes in the 
Southern Clinic of May, 1880, that oleomargarine differs in its micro- 
scopical appearance as well as in its nutritive and dietetic qualities 
from true butter; that the fats in it are not subjected to a heat suffi- 
cient to destroy the germs of septic and putrefactive organisms, and 
that there may also be introduced into the system by its means the eggs 
which develop tape-worms; and he states that he has frequently found 
in oleon)argarine eggs resembling tai)e-woruis. 

Dr. Greorge B. Harrison, a microscoi>ist, of Boston, Mass., in the Bos- 
ton Herald of January 8, 1881, says he has recently examined s^me 
twenty speciuiens (>f oleomargarine obtained from different dealers, and 
has found in every s])ecimen more or less of foreign substances, a va- 
riety' of animal and vegetable life; the blood corpus(;les of sheep; the 
e^ff of a tape- worm ; yeast was found sprouting in considerable quanti- 
ties, and spores of fungi were very prevalent. He found a portion of a 
worm, dead hydra varidis, portions of muscular fibers, fatty cells, and 
eggs from some small parasites. 

The English microscopist, W. H. Dallinger, said to be the greatest 
liv'ing authority on this subject, in a letter to the American Journal of 
Microscopy of October, 1878, shows that oleomargarine is not subjected 
to a heat sufficient to kill the living organisms which refuse fats are 
liable to contain. 

Chief-Justice Marshall, of the United States Supreme Court (McCul- 
loch vs. Maryland, reported in 4 Wheat., 428), says: 

rt is iiflmittefl that the power of taxing the people and their property is essential 
to the verj' existence of the Government, and may legitimately be exercised to the 
utmost extent to which the Government may choose to carry it. 

The people give to their Government the rig t of taxing themselves and their 
property, and as the exigencies of the Government cannot be limited, they prescribe 
no limits to the exercise of this right, resting confidently on the interest of the leg- 
islators, and of the intluence of the constituents over their representatives to guard 
them against abuse. 

And again: 

That the power to tax involves the power to ilestroy is a proposition not to be 
denied. 

Is it not a (;ase where it is perfectl}^ safe to tax? 
Hilliard on Taxation says: 

Section 85. The taxing power is an essential attribute of sovereignty, and can 
onlv be abridged bv positive enactment (State vs. Newark, 2 Dutcher, N. J., 519; 
Debolt vs. Ohio, Ohio St., 5(i;5). 

And again, Justice Story, sec. 922, says : 

A power to l<ay taxes for any purposes whatsoever is a general power: a power to 
lay taxes for certain specified purposes is a limited power; a power to lay taxes for 
the common defense aud general welfare of the United vStates is not in common sense 
a general power. It is liujited to those objects. It cannot constitutionally transcend 

17007 OL 10 



242 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

tlieiii. If the defense projxsed l>y a tax be not the eonm on cefense of the United 
States, if Ihe welJare he not general, but special or loeal, as coutradistingnished 
from national, it is not within the seope of the Con8tituti<u. If the tax be not pro- 
posed for the common dei'i use or jjeneral welfare, hut for other objects, wholly ex- 
traneous (as, i'or instance, ior piopa<iatin<j Mahonietisin among tiie Turks or giving 
aids and subsulics to a foreign nation to build palaces for its kings, or erect monu- 
ments to its liei(ies), tt would be wholly indefensible upon conslitui ional ])rinciples. 

Desty on Taxation says : 

One purpose of taxation sometimes is to discourage a business and perhaps to put it 
out of existence, and it is taxed without any idea o1 protection attending the liurden. 
This lias lieen avowedly the case in some Federal taxes (Veazie Bank r^. Uenno, 8 
Wall., 5315.) The taxes have ueverlhelcss been sustained. 

Suppose tlie ji lends oi tbe dairy interest had uumifested a desire to tax 
tlie nianuiaeture of oleomargarine out of existence, wliieh is not what 
they really wish, but rather to impose such a tax u])on the imitation 
product as will make the eom])etition of the cheaper ])ioduct fair to 
dairy products, does any one (ionl)t the constitutional power of Con- 
gress to legislate to that extent. Congress has an uidiinited jiower to 
tax, and could tax, an undesirable industry out of existence ; nay, more, 
it can so burden a de.■^irab]e industry with unjust taxes so that such 
industry cannot survive the burden. 

Second. Another reason to u])hold the constitutionality of the meas- 
ure now before the Senate. The iS^ational (xoverunient has ample and 
complete police ])Owers on all matters of ibreign or interstate commerce. 

The court, in Pierce et al. vs. New Hami)shire (5 Wheat., 608), per 
Woodbury, justice, says: 

The police pov cr of till Statt s v as icserved to the .States, but such ]ioli(c power 
extends 1o articles only which do not belong to foreign commerce or commerce be- 
tween the .States. 

Does not the honor of our ibreign commerce demand that the police 
power of the National Government be exeicised to the fullest extent? 
What right has Iowa to legislate in reference to oleomargarine ex- 
l)orted Irom the ])ort ol New York ? None whatever, but Congress has 
power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the dif- 
lerent States." No State has tliis power. It is true a State may i)ro- 
tect its own citizens by jirohibiting the importation of undesirable arti- 
cles of commerce, as, for instance, articles that are deleterious to health. 
This is too sacred a right of the State itself to be taken away by the 
United States. The diflfereut States have an undoubted right to pre- 
vent the im])ortation of oleomargarine on the ground that it is deleteri- 
ous to jiublic health. But to the National Government belongs the right 
to prohibit commerce in oleomargarine between the States and the ex- 
l)orting of it to a foreign country, lor this comes so clearly within the 
purview of that clause of the Constitution, worded so plaiidy that it 
can mean nothing else than that Congress .shall have power to regulate 
commerce with loreign nations and among the several States. The 
police ]>ower of the National Government sought to be embodied in this 
law is not unconstitutional, because it may perchance impair the j)rop- 
eity of manufactures, invested in a busiitess they have hitherto been 
allowed to carry on without hindrance, for persons and property are 
subject to all kind of restraint and burdens in order to secure the gen- 
eral comiort, health, and prosi)erity of the State. Laws relating to tbe 
comlbrt, health, conveniences, and general welfare of the i)eople are 
comi)]ehensively styled ]K)]ice laws, and it is well settled that laws of 
this character, though they may disturb the enjoyment of individual 
rights, are not unconstitutional. Private interest must yield to public 
advantages. 



IMITATION DAIRY rROijUCTS. 243 

Tlie National Goveriiinent is not sovereign without the power to regu- 
late interstate and foreign conitnerce, and Congress can wield this sov- 
ereign power as it may deem best for the public weal ; and it is indeed 
a bold and reckless assertion at tliis late day that there is any clause, 
section, or provision in the Constitution prescribing the limits of legis- 
lative discretion in directing how, when, or wliere a trade shall be con- 
ducted in articles intimately connected with public morals, i)ublic 
safety, or public welfare, or, indeed, to [)rohibitor sui>press such traffic 
altogether if deemed essential to effect those great ends of good gov- 
ernment. 

What are the reasons why the i)olice power of the State should be 
exercised in the nninner asked for? It is not often that agriculture 
has knocked at the doors of Conaress. Why is it doing so to day ? It 
it is not because the prosperity of those engaged in this pursuit is 
threatened. It is more than this. It is a question of actual existence, 
and the existence of an industry as important as that of dairying in this 
country is no unimjtortant matter. 

This threatened destruction brought to bear upon this measure the 
sui)port of 7,500,000 of fai'iners, and their supi)ort was sufficient to carry 
the measure through the House of Representatives. What a keen sat- 
isfaction belongs to each one of the 177 who sup])orted this measure in 
the House of Representatives. With the example of the lower House 
for a i)recedent i do not believe tlie farmers of tlie country will be dis- 
appointed in the deliberations of the Senate upon this measure. There 
are i)otent reasons for the ])assage of this bill, and serious evils will re- 
sult to the country should it not pass. It is no infant industry that is 
asking for the nursing mother of protection. 

It is or has been the great industry of the country and it is on the 
point of destruction. " Comparisons are odious," but it is only by com- 
parisons that we can ascertain the enormous magnitude of dairying in 
this country. There are to-day in the United States about 10,000,000 
cows, worth $000,000,000, and the annual amount of butter product 
amounts to about 1,000,000,000 pounds, worth about 1250,000,000. 

The annual value of the dairy i)roducls each year equals $500,000,000. 
There are to-day 7,000,000of our population engaged in dairying. There 
are 05,000,000 acres ot land devoted to dairy farms, and this land with 
the plant used in the dairy, including implements, machinery, and 
buildings, especially devoted to this i)urpose, are worth, at a low esti- 
mate, $-!0,000,000,000. Now to compare this industry with others that 
are well known to be important: 

By the census of 1880 there was invested in manufactures .|2, 790, 272, 609 

Vahie of mauufactural products 5,369,579,191 

Production of gold and silver 774, 490, 620 

Capital invested in raihoads 5, 425,722, 560 

13,6()0,064,977 

This is less than the capital actually invested in agriculture. The 
prosperity of our country is largely due to our agricultural ])rosperity. 
If agriculture is profitable and our farmers prosperous, the entire coun- 
try feels the beneficent effect of this prosperity. But agriculture is r.o 
longer profitable and our farmers are not prosperous. Many thousands 
of farmers are comparatively poor. The millions of dollars I have stated 
to be invested in agriculture is divided among a large portion of our 
population, and the farm with no source of income save that derived 
from the dairy must still siii)port the farmer and his family, provide 



244 IMITATION DAIRY PRODICTS. 

inauy daily necessaries witli no liope or ex])e('taTioii of luxury, educate 
the sons and daug^liters, a i)ardonab]e ambition with every American 
citizen, and provide an insurance against want and jienury for the 
farmer's declining years. Tbe individual farmer is no longer prosperous. 
The farmer who incurred a debt in oider to procure a farm cannot meet 
his obligations and is forced into bankiuptcy, which means much suffer- 
ing to himself and family and a loss to the State. If by unremitting 
toil and the deprivation of many of the actual necessaiies of life the 
farmer is able to struggle against the tide and meet his obligations, he 
only accomplishes this much of a barren success at a cost which should 
not be necessary in any industry in this country. 

Let us look at the causes wliich have wrought this disaster. We 
have for years had an enormous export trade in the dairy products, 
which means a considerable iiicrease in the wealth of the country; it 
means that dairy i)roducts, under the intluence of this export trade, 
commanded a higher price than would be the case were there no export 
trade, and consequently more wealth and ])rosperity to individual 
farmers. In 1875 we exported butter to the amount of -81,000,090, and 
this export trade iapi<lly increased, until 1880 we exported butter to the 
amount of $0,000,087, and had this export trade continued to increase 
as it should have done for the next five years the export trade in but- 
ter in 1885 would at least have equaled 110,000,000. In order to meet 
the export trade which we should have had in 18>5, more farms would 
have been devoted to this industry, more of the national wealth would 
liave been invested in the a])i)liances of daiiying, in buildings and dairy 
stocks, and individual farmers would have been ac hnist pros|)erous. 
This is not the success which has attended this industry. In 1885 we 
exported butter to the amount of only $3,043,040, and it is doubtful if 
the exjjort trade during the present year will equal $2,000,000. It is 
not hard to find the cause of the alarming depression in a leading in- 
dustry. 

In 1870 anew so-called industry was added to our national resources — 
the exportation of oleomargarine. That year we exported oleomarga- 
rine to the value of $70,483. This industry, with so small a beginning, 
founded in fraud and nurtured in deceit, has attained a marvelous 
success. In 1885 there was exported from this country oleomargarine 
to the value of $4,451,032. Compare the value of butter exported in 
1885 with the value of the oleomargarine exported during the same time 
and the comparison is indeed a startling one — $807,980 in favor of the 
fraud against the legitimate industry. The dairy has been worsted 
in competition with the oleomargarine factory, and when we consider 
that oleomargarine is a source of immense profit to a few capitalists, 
while the dairy is a source of small profit to an immense number of our 
citizens, the question becomes of the greatest importance to our leading 
statesmen. The decline in our export trade in dairy products produces 
a far reaching and inevitable result, and this result is fraught with 
serious disaster. The decline in the \alue of dairy jjroducts means a 
decline in the \ alue of dairy farms, a reduction in the number and value 
of dairy cows, and a reduction in the value of labor on the farm. 

During the three months ending March 31, 1880, we exported oleomar- 
garijie, including imitation butter and the oil, to the amount of $018,022, 
and during the same three months we exported butter to the amount of 
only $451,114. These are figures well worthy of examination ; tliey can 
mean but one thing, that the dairy industry is imperiled ; that if the dairy 
industry suffers loss, the loss is an important source of wealth, that dairy 
farms will have to be devoted to other branches of agriculture, which 



IMITATION DAIKY PRODIXTS. 245 

ineaii an injury to those engaged in those industries; that dairy farms 
may yet be devoted to the rearing of live stock to the great detri- 
ment of those engaged in the production of beef. But there is no room 
in any other agricultural industiy, and all classes of agricultural indus- 
try are interested in the preservation of tlie <lairy industry. It has be- 
come no doubtful question that the method in which we are seeking to 
regulate this evil isthe only method which promises success, is, indeed, the 
last resort. For ten years the different States have tried to regulate, so 
far as they have had jurisdiction, this fraud. They have made strenuous 
legislative efforts to have imitations of dairy products sold for what they 
are. Branding has been tried in some States and coloring in others, 
but with the lack of uniformity in the laws of the different States, and 
some States with no laws whatever, with oleomargarine manufacturers 
and venders with no decent regard for such State laws as we have, 
tempted by a love of gain to encourage the fraud, it seems to be the 
last resort to invoke the aid of the national (Tovernment. 

It seems unfortunate that the United States, the one nation whose 
citizens have suffered from the manufacture, should be behind England, 
Holland, Denmark, and Germany in this matter. None of these conn- 
tries are to the same extent dairy countries as the United States. None 
of these countries have suffered as has this country; and, indeed, if 
oleomargarine is tiie cheap and satisfactory substitute for butter that 
it is represented to be, the interest of England, a large importer of but- 
ter, would be against anti-oleomargarine legislation. We should pro- 
tect our dairy farmers, interstate and foreign commerce, and consum- 
ers, both at home and abroad, who purchase our dairy products, from 
the further perpetuation of this gross swindle. 

ADDITIONAL STATEMENT OF GARDINER B. CHAPIN. 

Mr. Chapin said : I want to say one word more in regard to the pro- 
cesses of butter-making. The manner of doing these things has not 
been exi)lained here. There is no reason to-day, if it was not for the 
colli storage places, why buttef should not beselling atlO cents a pound. 
The manner of doing business is that the dealers to-day are now buying 
their butter for next winter's stock ; the farmers cannot keep it them- 
selves. It must change hands at this time of the year wiien the prod- 
uct is manufactured and the dealers put it in cold storage for winter 
use. 

I want to explain to you how we were served in 188.3. These manu- 
facturers of oleomar.yarine oil, as I understand, can (iontinue manufact- 
uring their oil all the summer when they cannot successfully make a 
good butterine or oleomargarine. Consequently we go and put in our 
stock for next winter's use. We help the tanner by i)aying him 5 or 6 
cents a pound more for the butter than if he was obliged to put it on the 
market and ha\e it consumed to day. In 1883 the dealers of Boston 
made their estimate in regard to the stock, &c , and about the first of 
January the oleomargarine manufacturers went to work and loaded the 
market with their butterine and oleomargarine and the i)rice of butter 
immediately fell so that there was but a short time for the consumer t) 
be benefited, and it produced a loss to the butter dealers in Boston, 
according to my estimate, $300,000. One of the Saint Albans pai)ers, 
right in the butter district, estimated it at .*7r)0,00(). 

My brother Simpson, from Boston, gave certain figures, but he did 
not tell what figures. He evades the question, and tells only his part 
of the story, for he was Just as much in fa\ or of having such a law 



246 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

passed, or sonietliing" similar to it, up to the time lie became a mauu- 
facturer or was interested in the manufacture of oleomargariue. I say 
this law is not only to ])rotect the farmer, but also the dealer. 

Mr. Simpson states that he thinks the man ufactui'er of oleomargarine 
has com])elled the dairy sections of Vermont, Xew Ham])shire, and 
Maine to go into the creamery business. This is not so. The demand 
is for creamery or uniform butter, and that is the cause of it. He refers 
to the low prices of 1879. At that time the indnsiries of our country 
were at a standstill, and half the manufacturing establishments in Xew 
England were closed, thousands of men were out of employment, and 
the number of milch cows was larger per capita than now. The popu- 
lation since 1879 has increased much faster than the capacity of pro- 
ducing dairy products, and he knows and has always admitted the 
reason why this is so, which is that the farmers could not compete with 
this great fraud. 

Professors Morton, Chandler, and IJabcock have stated that stale or 
tainted lard could not be used in this luanntacture, but that it must be 
used within twenty-four hours after the animal is slaughtered. Testi- 
mony, however, has been given that kidney fat was used from ten to 
twenty days after t'le aninial was killed. They meet that argument by 
saying that the animal heat must be taken out during that time. Pro- 
fessor Salmon, the physiologist of the Agricultural Department, who 
coDies before you unpledged to either side, states the facts pro and cou, 
and does not supi)ort them altogether in their statements. The very 
fact that oleomargarine will keep longer is proof that ii lacks the rich or 
volatile oils of b'ltter, which make it delicions and wholesome and at 
the same time easily digested. 

The opponents ot tiiis bill claim that their ]>roduct slionld be sold on 
its merits, but they fail to suggest any i)lan which will compel tbis to 
be done. They object to coloring it any other than the butter color, and 
yet admit that they aid the dealer in every way they can to deceive the 
public in color, flavor, style of packages, and brands, or the absence of 
brands, as the dealer nuiy require, and even brand it "creameiy" or 
"dairy,"' with any i)rehx that is desired. 



ADDITIONAL STATEMENT OF J. H. CRANE. 

Mr. John H. Crane, of Washington, said: Two of the gentlemen 
who have appeared before this committee have read tabular statements 
in reference to the average cost of articles of i)roduce in ditterent years. 
1 am a wholesale produce dealer in this city, and all wholesale <lealers 
in produce and persons at all connected with these articles know that 
these statements have no reference whatever to the price of butter. 
The potato crop is planted now and we do not know wliether potatoes 
will be worth $2 next tall or 50 cents; that is determined by the season. 
It is the same with flour and other articles. To bring in those articles 
as an excuse for this decline in butter is very unfair. 

1 wish to say a word in regard to the operation of the law in this Dis- 
trict. Gentlemen have come all the way from Boston to tell you how 
the law is enforced there. I have been a resident liere in Washington 
for twenty-five years, and am perfectly familiar with the workings of 
our government here under different systems. This oleomargariue law 
in the District of Columbia was j)assed seven years ago last January, 
and up to the i)reseut time there has never been one cent collected in 
the way of penalties for the violation of the law, although it imposes 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODT^CTS 247 

a fine of $100 for its violation, one-balf to be given to the informer. 
The law requires all packages of imitation batter, or anything made in 
the semblance of batter, to be branded with the word -'oleomargarine," 
in letters not less than half an inch square. Up to one year ago there 
was never a tub of imitation butter whicii came here that 1 ever heard 
of that had that brand upon it. I'or six years these men conducted 
this business and sent these goods here in violation of the laws of the 
District. Last year, after going to the police and health authorities, 
and calling the attention of members of the press to this matter, I 
finally wrote an article for the Evening Star setting forth the facts and 
quoting the law, which create*! qnite a sensation. There were tons of 
this imitation butter arriving here every day previous to that time. 
After that article ai)peared not a package of it arrived here that I could 
learn of for two weeks. Why did the}' stop it? Because they knew 
they were violating the law. Gradually they began sending it here 
again. 

I have made ddigent inquiry and I cannot find any dealer in butter 
here who had any knowledge of these goods being marked until about 
one year ago last November, and then they commenced to maik them 
" butterine." But that does not conform to the law at all. I wish to 
show why this word butterine has been coined. There is the word [ex- 
hibiting], and you have only to erase the last three letters, and it reads 
" butter.'' "Oleomargarine" is an honest word. You may erase all the 
letters yon please and you cannot make it resemble the word butter. 
But it IS not so with the word butterine. This is the way they brand 
the article butterine [exhibiting an almost illegible inscription]. That 
is the brand sold by my next door neighbor. Can anybody make any- 
thing out of it ? Is that an honest way of branding it I My next door 
neighbor told me this morning that his last lot of butterine came in 
marked in that way and that stands for butterine. 

About six weeks ago the retail dealers in honest batter in the market 
went to the city authorities and asked if something could not be done 
to enforce this law. The matter was referred to the detectives, and they 
introduced a gentleman by the name of Sellhausen, a detective, who 
told them that if they wouhl each contribute a dollar a week he would 
work up some of the cases of violations of this law. They contributed 
that amount for tive or six weeks, and he would tell them from time to 
time that he had got so many samples of bogus butter ami had sent 
them to Professor Taylor for analysis, but that Professor Taylor had no 
time to attend to them. He said that he had sent nine sami)les over 
there, but Professor Taylor tells me that he has ne\er received a single 
sample; that the butter never came there. It looks suspicious. These 
men paid their money for six weeks to this man and then he skipi)ed 
the town. 

The Chairman. What are the provisions of tlie law in the l)istri<;tf 

Mr. Crane. It was passed January 25, 187!). It requires that the 
word oleomargarine shall be branded in plain Roman letters of not less 
than half an inch square to be placed in i)roper otder, and in case the 
retail dealers in such articles or substances, or anybody else, sells them, 
they shall in all cases deliver to the [)urchaser a written or printed label 
bearing the ])lainly written or i)rinted word " oleomargarine" in type 
letters, and every sale of such articles not marked or branded or labeled 
shall be void, and no cause of action shall be maintained for the price 
thereof. You may walk down among the dealers of Washington to day 
and you will have hard work to timl one tul) of butterine or imitation 
butter marked with the word •'oleomargarine," as the law requires, al- 



248 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

tliougli vou will tiiid i>leiity of it marked " butterine," audall the dealer 
has to do is to erase the last three letters and it reads " butter." 

The Chairman. You state it is your understandiug" that the law is 
not enforced in the District? 

Mr. (KANE. iS^o, sir; it is not. 

Senator Blair. I want to get ^t the facts Mrs. Smith says that the 
"Womans' Leajiue agitated the subject, and that one woman was arrested 
and fined for selling bogus butter. 

Mr. Crane. Yes, that is the fact; Mrs. Margaret Kiley. I will state 
the iacts. Alter i had publislied these articles the Market Comi)auy 
took hold of the matter, and determined to drive out all ihe dealers in 
imitation butter standing on the south side of the market, and their in- 
spector found this unfortunate woman, Margaret Kiley, selling bogus 
butter, and also an itinerant })reacher from Virginia selling it They 
swore out warrants agaijist them, and they were arrested, taken to the 
police court, lined, and held for the grand jury. They have never paid 
their fines, and Margaret told me the day before yesterday that she 
never intended to pay a cent, Theie has never been one cent of fine col- 
lected in the District of Columbia under that law, and never has been 
cue conviction made which was due to the ett'orts of the District au- 
thorities. 

Senator Joneh. You say large quantities of this article were brought 
here for the first six years without being branded ? 

Mr. Crane. Yes; I made diligent search among the dealers, and 
watched it as it landed, and have seen it branded "creamery" and 
"extra dairy" and so forth, but never saw the word oleomargarine or 
butterine upou it. 

Senator Jones. These packages that you saw branded "creamery" 
and so on, what did they have in them "? 

Mr. Crane. Nothing but bogus butter. 

Senator Jones. How do .^ou kuo\, that? 

Mr. Crane. Because J examined them, and I know by what peojde 
tell me who deal in them. 

Senator Jones. Did you rejjort them to the authorities ? 

Mr. Crane. 1 re])orted it through the press. 1 do not consider it my 
duty to act as a detective ioi- the District of Columbia when Congress 
has taken the right of suffrage away and placed Commissioners over us. 
It is not my place to execute the law or see that it is executed. 

Senator Jones. In the article which you wrote for the newspaper did 
you make the statement that oleomargarine and butterine were manu- 
factured of carrion 1 

Mr. Crane. No, sir ; I did not. 

Senator Jones. You never printed any such statement ? 

Mr. Crane. No, sir; 1 made this statement in legard to the fat of 
animals: that formerly they buried their animals and now they paid 
money to get them. There are two boiling establishments, one on each 
side of the Potomac, about 3 miles down the river, where these animals are 
taken and boiled, the bones used i'or tertilizing, the skins sent away, 
aiul the i'at sold and shi])i)ed away. I had a conversation with one of 
those gentlem<-n, Mr. P. Mann, and he iniormed me that he sold it for 
soaj) grease. He is a very honorable gentleman, and would not sell it 
for anything else. But what becomes of it afterwards ? He says he 
cannot tell, lie says in the winter time it smells well and looks well. 
He shi])s it to New York and sells it to a Jew. 

Senator Jones. You did not inteud to have it understood that it was 
nsed for butterine? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 249 

Mr, Crane. 1 do uot ineau to say that the gentlemen here would use 
it ; I do not believe they would. J do not tliink the firm of Armour & 
Co. have occasion to use anything of the kind ; but I do say that there 
is great danger of its being used by meu of no character or principle 
whatever. They get hold of some process of making bntterine, and 
want to sell a cheap article, and may be tempted to buy this. 

Senator Jones. You stated in regard to these packages branded but- 
terine that there was no ditticulty in scratching oft" the last letters so 
as to make it read butter. Did you ever know of any case where it was 
done? 

Mr. Crane. I do not see why it could not be done. 

Senator Jones. But you never caught a man making that erasure? 

Mr. Crane. I never did. 

Senator Jones. And never knew of its being done? 

Mr. Crane. But I have no donbt it would be ; it has been done. I 
waut to say a word in legard to the enforcement of the law. There is 
a gentleman in this room who tried for ten days to have something done 
about the enforcement of the law. He went from one official to another, 
and finally gave uj) the whole thing in disgust. 

I listened with great attention to the chemists from iSTew York who 
addressed this committee, and was astonished to hear them say that 
this was bntter. . If it is butter, it will digest like bntter. But what 
does the other chemist from Boston say who came here? He stated 
yesterday that it would not digest as well as butter. I care not what 
they say or what investigations they make, they cannot prove that im- 
itation butter, made of hog's lard, is like the butter that comes from the 
milk of the cow. It is an entirely difterent thing. 1 wonhl give more 
for one fact and a little common sense than for the theories of all the 
chemists in the world. 

Senator Blair. You deal in bntter, 1 understand. 

Mr, Crane. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. And this other article is sold in the District largely, 
not sohl under its true name, but sold as butter, I understand you. Do 
you not find .yourself obliged to sell it ? 

Mr. Crane. 1 refuse to sell it, and I wish to say 

Senator Blair. How does the honest dealer get along and do busi- 
ness by the side of men who are not so honest ? 

Mr. Crane. He has to let his customers go. I liave a notice i)ut up 
in my store which says, "No oleomaigariiie or butteriue sold here; all 
good's warranted jture,''' I decline to sell any goods, vinegar, butter, or 
anything else, unless they are what 1 represent them to be, 1 have 
lost thousands of dollars in trade because 1 will not sell that article. 
I have had some of the most tempting offers made to me which I have 
declined, because 1 consider that a great crime has been ])erpetrated on 
the American people for the last ten or twelve years in the way of 
palming oft" on the country this bogus product and having it sold for 
genuine. It is bringing the farmeis to the verge of ruin while these 
men are putting millions in their own pockets. 

Senator Blair. You said you had the most tenii)ting offers made to 
you to get you to deal in oleomargarine. I would like to get some of 
those facts, 

Mr. Cranp:. Well, I have had an oleomargarine house in Baltimore 
8en<l to me several times and want me to take the agency — the house 
of Kichards & Kennard. It is a very good business house, but I de- 
clined to have anything to do with it. 

Senator Blair. You say this firm in Baltimore is a respectable firm ? 



250 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Mr. Crane. Yes, sir; it is a very respectable firm, doing- a large 
business. 

Senator Blair. They wanted you to become their agent I 

Mr. Crane. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blatr. There could be nothinii improper in that, so far as 
you have stated it. 

Mr. Crane. I have a principle against selling- it; I do not believe in 
sellinfj adulterated goods. I would just as soon engage in selling- 
counterfeit money. 

Senator Blair. Do you mean to say that you would not sell oleo- 
margarine if you told people what it was ; or do you iiunin it was an 
offer to you to sell oleomargarine as butter? 

Mr. Crane. They did not say anything about that. 

Senator Blair. Then, so far as it goes, it was :i jn-oposition made by 
a respectable firm to you to sell oleomargarine as oUn)margariiu^ '? 

Mr. Crane. And the agent of another respectable tirm in Baltifnore 
wrote to me and urged me to take some of it, and said he would i)ut on 
any fancy name I desired. He said 1 was very foolish to have it marked. 
He said they were selHng it every day without having it marked. 

Senator Blair. What firm was thar ? 

Mr. Crane. It was the agent of a business house in Baltimore. 

Senator Blair. What was the name? 

Mr. Crane. The name of the house he represents was Oudesluys & 
Richardson. I do not know that they had any arrang:emH>iit witli him ; 
this was a drummer who was very anxious to sell goods. I do not wish 
to injure the house by my statement. 

Senator Blair. As you left it, it would leave the dealers of the whole 
country — those who deal in oleomargarine — under the suspicion that 
they were parties to a fraud and an imposition, and were trying- to put 
their product on the country as a fraud. 

Mr. Crane. Well, I think they are. 

Senator Blair. But when I ask you minutely about it, it seems some 
irresponsible drummer made the proposition, and you do not care your- 
self to charge it to the firm. 

Mr. Crane. I do not wish to do anything- to injure any man's busi- 
ness; I have no right to doit. I wish to be square, honorable, and 
aboveboard in all this business. J have nothing to do with oleomar- 
garine. I do not know all the gentlemen making it personally. I know 
nothing against them, and wish to have no trouble with them. But I 
think the business, in the way it is carried on here, should be stopped, 
and that the dealers should be made to put a mark on the goods and 
pay some respect to the law. There would be no other way for them 
but to respect the law if the United States would take the matter into 
its hands, as this bill provides. 



STATEMENT OF L. M. OHLY. 

Mr. L. M. Ohly, of New York City, then addressed the committee : 

I used to deal in oleomargarine, but have not sold any for several 
years. Within two or three days I have eaten oleomargarine in a res- 
taurant, and the woman told me it was sold to her for butter, and the 
tub was branded in such a manner that you could not tell what the let- 
ters were. The letters were probably an inch and a half long, but they 
were only a quarter of an inch wide, and it is almost impossible to tell 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 251 

what they are. I know, also, that stores buy it and sell it for butter 
My wife has bought it and L have taken it back to them. I know that 
manufacturers for whom I have worked have asked me to scrape off" 
the brand " oleomargarine" after the customers bought it, and to be 
sure and wait until tlie customer had made the purchase, so that the 
law could not atJect him. 

The Chairman. You were instructed to scratch off the brand if the 
customer wanted it off ? 

Mr. Ohly. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. Did you ever do it; did any of the customers ever 
ask you to have it taken oft"? 

Mr. Ohly. Yes, but I didn't do it myself; 1 have seen our men 
doing it. 

Senator Blair. Wbo do you mean by "our men V 

Mr. Ohly. The other employes of the particular manufacturer. 

The Chairman. Do you say that you dealt in oleomargarine? 

Mr. Ohly. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. When was that ? 

]\[r. Ohly. Two years ago the tirst of May. 

The Chairman. What did you sell it for, oleomargarine or butter? 

Mr. Ohly. I sold it for oleomargarine ; 1 never sold it for anything 
else but oleomargarine. 

The Chairman. The customers knew what they were getting then'? 

Mr. Ohly. Yes, sir^ 

Senator Blair. Where do you live ? 

Mr. Ohly. In Brooklyn. I am a produce commission merchant. 

The Chairman. You are not a retailer! 

Mr. Ohly. No, sir. 

Senator Blair. Your customers are retailers, as a rule? 

Mr. Ohly. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. You sell to the retailer oleomargarine ? 

Mr. Ohly. No, sir; we hav^e not for over two years. 

Senator Blair. When you did deal in it you sold it as oleomargar- 
ine ? 

Mr. Ohly. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. You said " our men" scraped off the last letters ? 

Mr. Ohly. By that I meant the employes. 

Senator Blair. Of your firm ? 

Mr. Ohly. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. Of your own commission house ? 

Mr. Ohly. No, sir ; the employes of the manufacturers. T was not 
then a commission merchant, or employed by a (jommissiou merchant. 

Senator Blair. How long ago was that, an<l in whose employ were 
you then? 

Mr. Ohly. I would not like to mix in the names. 

Senator Blair. You ought to understand that you are not at liberty 
to come here and tell a thing and stop just where you want to. You 
come and make a charge here. 

Mr. Ohly. It was Mr. Schwarzschild, of the firm of Schwarzschild & 
Sulzberger. 

Senator Blair. Were they dealers or manufacturers? 

Mr. Ohly. Large manufacturers. 

Seuator Blair. How long ago was that? 

Mr. Ohly. Two or three years ago. 

Senator Blair. How long did you work for them? 

Mr. Ohly. 1 do not know exactly; a few months. 



252 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Senator Blair. Five or six months ? 

Mr. Ohly. Probably. 

Senator Blair. In what capacity ? 

Mr. Ohly. Asassistant to my brother, who was their representative. 

Senator Blaie. As their general manager ? 

Mr, Ohly. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. Was he a member of the tirm! 

Mr. Ohly. No, sir. 

Senator Blair. He was working upon a sahiry ? 

Mr. Ohly. Upon commission. 

Senator Blair. You said they were \ery hirge dealers. Have you 
any idea of the amount they produced annually ? 

Mr. Ohly. No, sir ; I have not, but it is very large. They have gone 
out of the business. 

Senator Blair. One of the largest firms of manufacturers f 

Mr. OiiLY. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. You say they have gone out of the business? 

Mr. Ohly. They have gone out of the business of making oleomarga- 
rine butter, but they are still making oleomargarine oil. 

Senator Blair. You cannot give an idea of the extent of their man- 
ufacture ? 

Mr. Ohly. I think 300 or 400 pounds a day, sometimes more. 

Senator Blair. And tubs contain 50 pounds f 

Mr. Ohly. They contain 28, 40, and 5(3 pounds. 

Senator Blair. Where did they sell their manufacture ? 

Mr. Ohly. All over the country, as far west as Michigan, and through 
New York State, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. 

Senator Blair. What did they sell it as being ? 

Mr. Ohly. They sold it for oleomargarine. 

Senator Blair. Were their tubs labeled in the way required by law, 
as a rule f 

Mr. Ohly. I believe they were. 

Senator Blair. They sold it then as oleomargarine ! 

Mr. Ohly. They did. 

Senator Blair. It was never marked as butterine I 

Mr. Ohly. Yes, sir ; some. 

Senator Blair. What proportion of butterine did they manufacture 
of the entire manufacture f 

Mr. Ohly. They made oleomargarine first, and then the Chicago firms 
began to uuike butterine, and butterine being made from lard was more 
soft and i)liable than the oleonuxrgarine, which, in cold weather, was 
brittle, and peoi)le began to ask for butterine, and consequently they 
manufactured after that mostly butterine. 

Senator Blair. I understan<l you that in some cases customers, that 
is, commission men or retail dealers, came to that establishment and de- 
sired that the mark on the tub, " butterine," should be erased ? 

Mr. Ohly. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. And that was done, under the direction of the firm, 
by the workmen of the firm? 

Mr. Ohly. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. That was for the immediate consumption of that 
vicinity, or was it to be sent off to a distance ? 

Mr. Ohly. That was more for inimediate consumption in that vicinity. 
Many ordered their ))ackages put up in bags — out of town i)arties. 

Senator Blair. How would those be marked? 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 253 

Mr. Ohly. The tubs inside would probably be marked all riylit, but 
the coverings would not be marked, except with some stencil i)robably. 

Senator Blair. Would that cover necessarily be removed in the 
retailer's shop"? 

Mr. Uhly. Yes, sir. 

Senator Blair. So that in the retailer's shop the mark would be 
visible "? 

Mr, OiiLY, Yes, unless they took some measure to nnnove it. 

The Chairman. What is your business now ! 

Mr. Ohly. I am in the butter business. 

The Chairman. What is the name of the firm ? 

Mr. Ohly. Ohly Brothers with Henry Hanson & Company. 



STATEMENT OF GEORGE M. STERNE. 

Mr. Georgk M. Sterne, of Chicago, 111., then addressed the com- 
mittee. 

The Chairman. What is your business ? 

Mr. Sterne. I am a mjiDufacturer of oleomargarine auvl butteriue 
aud have been counected with the details of the production of those 
articles since 1S79. I have been closely connected with the manufacture 
of lard, lard oil, and the cooking of animal fats for nineteen years, and 
have expert knowledge as to their characteristics. 

The Chairman. What is this neutral that we hear about? 

Mr. Sterne. Neutral is made of tlie leaf lard of the hog. 

The Chairman. The proper title would be neutral lard ? 

Mr. Sterne. Yes, it is used that way. In speaking of it commer- 
cially we call oleomargarine oleo, but it has come to be a commercial 
term to speak of the manufa(;tured product or oil as oleo. ]S^eutral 
lard is an article of commerce and is known now as such. 

The Chairman. Are you familiar with the details of the manufacture, 
the actual process I 

Mr. Sterne. Yes. sir; entirely. 

The Chairman. Describe briefly the process of making neutral. 

Mr. S'l'ERNE. I have prepared a paper which describes the process 
used in the manufacture of oleomargarine and butterine, which I will 
read. In this paper I say that I know that the following is the universal 
process used in the manufacture of oleomargarine aud butterine, and 
that no fats of a deleterious or uncleanly character can be used or are 
used, and that any i)oor fats would make the product unsalable. 

The fat for the manufacture of oleomargarine is taken from the animal 
during the slaughtering process to vats of running water and thor- 
oughly washed, and theiice to vats of ice water and immersed, remain- 
ing several hours, thus removing all animal heat. It is then hung up 
in the refrigerating-room until taken to the grinding-room or hasher.. 
This time is usually not greater than twenty-four or thirty-six hours 
from the time of slaughter. 

The hasher is located above the cooking vats, into which it falls, and 
they are so constructed that the cooking is uniform, and all of the fat 
is melted Irom the fiber and tissue, and when this is accomplished the 
fiber aud tissue are carried to the bottom by the liberal use of salt, to 
which these particles attach themselves as it falls through the liquid 
fat. When well settled the clear liquid fat is drawn into another vat 
and the heat again applied and raised to a much higher temperature 



254 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

than tbat at which the first melting was done. We cook it the second 
time because the first process of cooking is lor the distinct i)arpose of 
separating the fat from the filler. If during the first cooking we were 
to raise the temperature we woukl roast the fiber, and thus give the fat 
a roasted flavor, while by first removing the fiber we can have nothing 
to im])air tlie flavor by farther cooking. Up to this point the work is 
identical in both lard and beef fat. From the cooking vat the lard goes 
into brine made of water, salt, ice, and nothing else, where it remains 
forty-eight to seventy-two hours, and is then ready for the churn. 

The beef fat without admixture of anything is drawn into graining 
vats and taken to a room where the temperature is between 90'^ and 
100° and remains until the oil and stearine have in a measure separated; 
being then put in cloths and under heavy pressure the oil yields and 
flow^s readily, leaving the stearine in the cloth. From the press the oil 
flows into vats, from which it is drawn either into tierces for shipment 
or into the brine made of watei', salt, and ice, and nothing else, to be 
cured for the churning. 

Taking the oleo oil to the chuining-room the required proportion of 
milk and cream, and in extreme cold weather a pro])ortion of cotton- 
seed oil or salad oil to soften, are added, and after churning the jirod- 
uct is ready for working and packing as oleomargarine. 

Beside theoleomaigarine grade there is made a dairy grade butterine 
and a <neamery grade butterine. These grades aie made with a per- 
centage of finest dairy or creamery butter. In the dairy grade from 15 
to 25 per cent, is used, and in the creamery or best grade 35 to 50, and 
sometimes as high as 05 per cent, of the choicest creamery butter is 
used. 

We use also the neutral lard in making the higher grades to give 
greater smoothness or bread-spreading ])roperty to it. In coloring 
we use the same as that universally employed by the butter-makers of 
the country. In and after the churning process the work is identical 
with butter-making. 

Supplementing the statements made to this committee by Professors 
Morton and Chandler that the fat must be used within twenty-four hours 
after being taken from the cattle, it is well to say that they meant that the 
animal heat must be removed within that time, and not that it must be 
made into the manufactured ]U'oduct, for it could be kept for several 
weeks if necessary in the refrigerator without its quality being affected. 

An exhibition by several manufacturers of oleomargarine was made 
at the fat stock and dairy show held under the auspices of the Illinois 
State board of agriculture at Chicago during the month of November, 
1885, and the lesult of that exhibit was, that thousands of peojile 
visited it and expressed surprise at the quality of the product, as 
they had read and heard it was unfit for food ; when in fact, it was 
superior to any butter they could buy at a reasonable price. Many 
members of the butter association stated they never had received cor- 
rect information concerning the i)roduct, and should not speak again of 
it in a derogatory manner. 

The Illinois State board of agriculture have placed oleomargarine 
and butterine in their catalogue of exhibits for the State fair to be held 
in September, 1880, and their fat stock show to be held in November, 
1880, immediately following dairy products, and under the title of '•' but- 
ter substitutes," recognizing the production of these articles as clearly 
and legitimately those of the farm as are butter or cheese. 

Now, gentlemen of the committee, I ask if these results of an exhibit 
of oleomargarine and butterine do not mean that they can stand on their 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 255 

merits, and tliat tliey are unjustly assailed, through lack of knowledge 
on the one hand and malice on the other. It is clear that the intention 
of this bill is to injure, cripple, or destroy a legitimate industiy, to i)rove 
which you need ou]\ lefer to the manner in which the bill is worded, 
and to the admissions of its friends that they think " it will have the ef- 
fect of curtailing its j)roducti()n.'" The coloring of butter or oleomar- 
gaiine is in itself harmless and done to meet the desiie of the consumer's 
taste. But to i)ass a measure through Congress to sui>])ress a legiti- 
mate industry, and to avoul suspicion that this is the object of the bill, 
coloi it with revenue, is a great injustice. 

The Chairman. You use cotton-seed oil only in the winter time? 

Mr. Sterne. Yes ; it is too soft to use in the summer time. 

The Chairman. When you do, what ])ercentage do you use f 

Mr. Hterne. Five or six i)er cent, sometimes ; it depends on whether 
it goes l^orth or South. In the winter we use it always with the lat to 
get the right bread-spreading properties. 

The Chairman. Do you or does anybody make a y)roduct which is 
simply neutral and dairy butter mixed, or do you in all cases use the 
three compounds of neutral, oleo, and the creamery butter ()r milk ? 

Mr. Sterne. J think the comi)ounds aie universally used for making 
oleomargarine. In the butterine and creamery grades I think there is 
no cotton-seed oil used. 

The Chairman. Then the amount of cotton seed used would be very 
small ? 

Mr. S'J'ERNE. Y"es, sir. 

The Chairman. How do you get entirely rid of the flavor or odor of 
the lard ? 

Mr. Sterne. It never has any. Leaf lard is perfectly and absolutely 
tasteless. The lard of commerce is frequently cut up into chunks, and 
each chunk must necessarily contain a great deal of fibriue, and in the 
cooking the outside will have melted away a long time before you get 
to the inside, and after the fat is melted oft' on the outside the tissue 
or fiber, or what is there, roasts with the heat and gives that roasted 
flavor acquired by all commercial lard from the kettle or steam. 

The Chairman. In the manufacture of ordinary lard for cooking pur- 
poses, do you in any way deodorize it to get rid of the peculiar flavor 
or odor ? 

Mr. Sterne. No, sir. 

The Chairman. What is the process of deodorizing oils or fats! 

Mr. Sterne. There is none. 

The Chairman. How is cotton-seed oil purifled and madejtasteless? 

Mr. Sterne. I do not think it can be done; I never saw any cotton- 
seed oil that was tasteless. 

The Chairman. There is no way of purifying this oil, then ?j 

Mr. Sterne. I think not. 

The Chairman, A gentleman yesterday told us it was deodorized and 
rendered entirely tasteless, so as to avoid any smell or taste. I may be 
laboring under a misapprehension, but I think he said these oils were 
purifled and rendered substantially tasteless and odorless. I supposed 
there was such a chemical process as that known. 

Mr. Sterne. No, sir; there is not. It has been a study with a great 
many people to find out how an oil like lard oil could be made into a 
better grade by taking out the color and smell, but it never has been 
done. 

The Chairman. We are told that cottonseed oil is purified and deo- 
dorized and then used as a substitute for olive oil. The natural flavor 



256 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

of cotton seed oil would hardly be palatable as a table oil unless purified 
in some way, and I suppose it is done. 

Mr. Sterne. I can explain that. The salad oil of commerce is made 
from cotton seed, and when tirst pressed from the crude seed it is a deep 
red color. That color is entirely formed by an inside fiber of the hull 
which attaches itself on the hull, and gives it a color. That color is 
eliminated, and it leaves a bright yellow oil, and it is sold as salad oil. 
It must be made from prime seed, or it cannot be used for such a pur- 
pose. 

The Chairman. How is the color taken out, by filtering- ! 

Mr. Sterne. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. Is it filtered through charcoal ? 

Mr. Sterne. Through bone dust and charcoal. It is put at a very 
high heat, the presses are charged with superheated steam all the time, 
and the stearine frotn it is made into cakes and sold. 

The ('HAIRMAN. The common impression that fats can be deodorized 
is not correct, then, according to your statement 1 

Mr. Sterne. No, sir. I would say in regard to theoleo oil that there 
is a liavor in the beef suet wl)ich we take great care to i)reserve, and 
any one who has been able to get it in its i>ertectiou has the best market 
for his oleo oil. 

The Chairman. Mrs. Smith asked me to inquire whether you employ 
in this manufacture female labor. 

Mr. Sterne. We have none. 



STATEMENT OF H. W. HENSHAW. 

Mr. H. W. Henshaw, of Chicago, then addressed the committee. 

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee: I am a member of 
the firm of Koos, Henshaw & Co., Chicago, exporters and wholesale 
dealers in butter and cheese; also manufacturers of butterine. I have 
been engaged in the butter trade since the year 1871, and commenced 
to manufacture butterine in the year 1882. 

In all our manufacture of butterine we have used ouly the finest grade 
of oleo oil, leaf lard, and butter to be found in the market. The process 
of manufacturing butterine is substantially the same in all the factories, 
and has been clearly described by Mr. George M. Sterne. It is simply 
impossible for any one to successfully make and get even cost out of it 
unless they use the utmost care and cleanliness and secure the most 
perfect materials to be had. Competition is so keen and the margin of 
profit so small that all manufacturers are forced to exercise this care. 

All our goods are plainly branded and sold for just what they are. 
I herewith attach copies of our invoices, letter heads, &c., for the com- 
mittee's inspection. 

We color our goods to conform with what each market requires; 
some desire a light color, while others want the goods much higher in 
color. 1 deny that the butter men have or ever had the exclusive use 
of yellow color for their butter. A large proportion of butter comes 
to our western markets, even at the present time, uncolored and very 
white. 

Up to tlie year 1879 more than two-thirds of the butter came into the 
Chicago market in stone jars, soap and caudle boxes, tobacco and candy 
pails, besides barrels of various sizes, and but very little of it was 
colored. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 257 

It is only since tlie manufacture of butterine commenced that the 
large color manufacturers have started in business throughout the West, 
and I claim that the makit-g- of butterine of a good uniform color has 
forced the greater portion of butter-makers to follow us in using a color. 
We now tiud them going to State legislatures and asking them to pro- 
hibit us from using the very article that we have forced into such gen- 
eral use among them. • 

The butterine manufacturers should, in all justice, be the ones who 
ought to ask for a law to prohibit the butter men from using any color, 
or if they did, it should be one different from what we have brought 
into general use. 

It is claimed by the butter men that the manufacture of butterine 
has not only reduced the price of butter to such an extent that many 
are already hopelessly bankrupt and driven out of butter-making, but 
that it has ruined our export trade to Great Britain and other countries. 

As they concede th;it all this great trouble has taken place with them 
in the last three years, I will submit tigures taken from the Chicago 
Board of Trade annual reports and the United States statistics showing 
the receipts of butter in Chicago, as follows: 

Pounds. 

For the year lHfs2 6fi, 954,045 

For the year IH& 75, 3^3, 012 

For the year lri.-4 83,410, 144 

For the year ^"85 92, 474, 784 

This shows an increase in the receipts of 25,520, 73l> pounds in three 
years, and it certainly does not look as if butter-making in the West was 
declining as rapidly as they claim. 

Although this increase has been so large the prices have ruled nearly 
the same. 

The average price for tine butter in Chicago was as follows: 

Ceuts per pound. 

1882 28*to32 

1883 - 25 to 28 

1884 25 to 27 

1885 ...25 to 26 

I herewith sul)mit the annual report of the secretary of the Elgin 
Board of Trade for the years 1884 and 1885. 

The averag(^ prices received during the six summer and autumn 
months of 1884 was 23^ cents per pound, and for the balance of the 
season 33 cents per pound. For the six summer and autumn months of 
1885 the average price was 21 cents per pound, and 32^- cents for the 
balance of the year. 

Certaiu it is that these figures do not lead us to believe tha^t there is 
such a wonderful shrinkage in the prices of butter as the speakers for 
the butter men claim, nor would it appear that with these prices which 
they have been receiving they are compelled to put blanket-mortgages 
on their farms, as Mr. Hopkins, of the fifth Illiuois district, which in- 
cludes the Elgin section, claimed in his speech delivered on this bill in 
the House of Representatives. 

Pounds. 
Dnriug the year of 1882 the exports of butter to Great Britaiu and Ger- 
many were 9, 947, 498 

1883 5,687,345 

1884 12, 438, ( i94 

1885 12,297,629 

17007 OL 17 



258 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS, 

The total exportation of butter to all foreign countries from the 
United States was as follows: 

Pounds. 

1882 14, 704, 305 

188:5 12,348,641 

1884 20, 621, 010 

1885 21,683,148 

Showing a gain in these three years of G.888,843 pounds. 

While our exports of wheat fell off 50 per cent, from 1884 to 1885 and 
flour 25 per cent., we tind ihe exports of butter increased 10 per cent, 
during the same period. 

In the Producers' Price Current, of New York City, under date of June 
12, 1886, we find that there had been received during the week in that 
city 51,782 packages of butter and 733 packages of biitterine; for the 
corresponding week of 1885 the receipts of butter in that city were 
41,348 packages, an increase of 10,434 i)ackages in one week. 

We also find that the total receipts of butter in New York City from 
May 1, 1886, to June 12, 1886, was 246,907 packages, and for the same 
time in 1885 197,334 packages, an increase of 49,573 packages in a trifle 
more than six weeks of the present year. 

This certainly appears, and is, conclusive evidence that the dairymen 
are not being driven out of the making of butter by the manufacture of 
butterine and oleomargarine. 

The prices paid to the farmers for milk by the Chicago milk dealers 
in the winter months of 1884 was $1.40 per can of 8 gallons ; during the 
summer months of the same year $1.10 per can. For the winter months 
of 1885 $1.25 ])er can, and $1 for the summer months. 

At the present time the New York milk dealers are paying the farmers 
from $1.20 to $1.30 per can of 10 gallons each. 

The passage of the bill now before your honorable committee, or even 
in a modified form, which would compel the manufacturers to stamp their 
goods with an internal-revenue stamp, be it great or small, would work 
serious injury to us. 

Strive as hard as we could to bring the merits of the goods before the 
people, there would yet remain in the minds of jnany the belief that if 
the Congress of the United States had placed a tax on it, it must cer- 
tainly be injurious or unhealthy in some manner. 

But why put a tax on an article which even the speakers in the dairy 
interest before your committee have so unanimously agreed was pure 
and healthy. 

There is not a manufacturer of butterine in this country who does not 
sell the goods for just what they are, and if the men who for three years 
past have filled the iiress in both the city and country with abusive 
and outrageous falsehoods regarding butteriue cease this mode of 
warfare, which has been carried to an extent far beyond the limit of 
patience, then and then only will the goods be in ever^^ case sold to 
the consumer for just what they are. 

I can safely say that all manufacturers of butterine will be glad to see 
that day come, for I am confident just so soon as this vile misrepresenta- 
tion and frightful stories of what is used in its manufacture is stopped, 
just so soon will the demand be greater than we have at the present 
time. 

From personal knowledge I know this has been the case in England, 
where to-day butteriue is sold in large quantities entirely' on its merits, 
coloring matter included. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 259 

The Chairman, If any other geutlemau desires to be heard the com- 
mittee will give him an opi)ortuuity. If not, the committee will stand 
adjourned until called, and the record of the hearing will be prepared. 
I desire to say that papers have come in to me from various parties in 
the form of statements, and those I wiil have incorporated with the hear- 
ing and printed, so that the committee will have the use of them — let- 
ters from dairymen, &c. If gentlemen desire to make any other state- 
ments which are material — we do not want to encumber the record — as 
to facts and figures, not arguments and theories, if they are sent in in 
time they will be printed. 

The following communications upon the subject under consideration 
were presented to the committee and are made part of the record: 



STATEMENT BY THOMAS TAYLOR, M. D. 

[Microscopist, TTnited States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C] 
IS OLEOMARGARINE HEALTHFUL AS COMPARED WITH PURE BUTTER ? 

This question, involving the consideration of che liquefaction, saponi- 
fication, and absorption of the various fats used as food in the animal 
economy, can only be satisfactoril;> answered by the physiological 
chemist. 

In speaking of fats in general we are too apt to consider that the 
solid fats of all animals are alike, whereas it is well known that the 
composite fats of some animals differ very much from those of other 
animals, and in some cases fats of a different composition exist in the 
same animal, as in the oil of milk as compared with that of the solid 
fats of the tissues. 

The fats of milk consist of palmitine and oleine with a little stearine, 
while the fats of the adipose vesicles are comi^osed of palmitine, oleine, 
and a large proportion of stearine. 

Beaumont does not say much with regard to the changes which fatty 
substances undergo in the stomach, except that they are " digested 
with great difficulty," 

All the receut observations ou this subject show that these principles, when taken 
in the condition of oil, pass out at the p.yhirus unchanged. Most of the fatty con- 
stituents of the food are liquefied at the temperaftire of the body ; and when taken 
in the form of adipose 1 issue, the little vesicles in which the oleaginous matter is 
contained are dissolved, the fat set free and melted, and floats in tiie form of great 
drops of oil on the alimentary mass. The action of the stomach, then, seems to be 
to prepare the fats for digestion, chiefly by dissolving the adipose vesicles for the com- 
plete digestion which takes place in the small intestine. (Flint.) 

The melting point of the solid fats is therefore all important in this 
inquiry, because a fat that melts at a temperature comparatively low in 
the human stomach is more quickly passed to the small intestine, where 
it is combined with the pancreatic juice and emulsified preparatory to 
its absorption by the tissues. 

The chemists of the United States who have indorsed the statement 
that oleomargarine when purely made is equal, if not .superior, to butter 
as an article of diet, if we may judge from their indorsements, have 
given no consideration to its physiological relations. They say that 
oleomargarine cannot be harmful because no evil arises from the fat of 
an animal used as food, if slaughtered in a healthy condition. But this 
statement is not wholly correct, for it is well known that the fat of mut- 



260 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

ton, ill wliichsteariiie largt'ly predominates, causes severe indigestion in 
some persons. 

It is further affirmed that oleomargarine will resist the liigii tempera- 
tures of the summer months better than will butter. Tliis agrees with 
my own experience, and the fact demonstrates tbat eleomargaiine is 
inferior to butter in ])oint of digestibility, because its power to with- 
stand the higher temi)eiature is owing to tbe large amount of stearine 
it contains; tiierefore, so lar as the higher melting point of oleomarga- 
rine is concerned, it is not a i)oiiit in its favor since the easy solution of 
the solid fats at a comparatively low temperature in the animal economy 
is necessary to their spee<ly passage from the stomach as an oil to 
the small intestine where they are further i)repared for absorption. 
This fact may be considered immaterial by some ])eisons, and so it may 
be in the case of its use in lobust health, but in cases of dyspepsia oleo- 
margarine cannot take the ])lace of butter, which is essentially an oil, 
and melts at a lower temperature in the stomach than would any other 
compound of the solid fats. 

According to phy sit (logical chemists, butter is digested in three hours 
"while the fat of beef takes five hours, and this is readily accounted for 
from the fact that palmitiiie, otie of the fats of butter, melts at a tem- 
perature of 1180 F., and oleine is liquid at 32° F. The oil in this case 
caiivses the combined fats of butter (palmitine and oleine) to melt at a 
still lower temperature than that of stearine, even when the latter is 
combined with cotton seed oil ; because stearine requires a temi)erature 
of about 114 degrees to liquefy, while butter melts at about 90° F. 

Professor Morton, of the School of Technology, New Jersey, is repre- 
sented as saying that " it (oleomargarine) contains nothing whatever 
which is injurious as an article of diet; but, on the contrary, is esseu- 
tially identical with the best fresh butter." This is certainly a strong 
statement from an able scientist. If strictly correct, no harm will result 
from a review of the methods employed in the manufacture of oleomar- 
garine. 

Several years ago, by invitation, I visited an oleomargarine factory 
on Cross street, Baltimore, Md. It presented every ai)pearance of 
cleanliness. The leaf fat used seemed in perfect condition and in larg-e 
quantity. The vessels used were bright and shining, and over the 
churn a large, cup-shaped disk of metal was placed to prevent so much 
as a dro}) of oil falling into tlie churn from the gearing. The workmen 
were cleanly and suitably clothed for their work. In a large vat the 
leaf fat was sliced up by means of revolving cutters. Water flowed in 
while the fat was being thus cut into small fragments, soon becoming 
red with blood from the vascular tissues which surround all fat cells, 
without which there could be no fat deposited in the adipose tissue. The 
cutters continued to slice up the fat, and fresh water wassui)plied until 
all color disappeared, when it is supposed that the fat has become per- 
fectly pure. 

This i)reliminary process of cleansing to the general observer would 
seem all that could be desired; it seemed so to me at the time, having 
been informed that the fat was that of healthy animals. But this is a 
superficial view of the case. Let us look deeper into the subject, as, for 
instance, were unwholesome beef fat subjected to the treatment. 

Caul and other fats in the crude state, as sold by the butcher, are 
combinations of fat and tissue. " The adipose vesicles are collected 
into little globules, from the one twenty-fifth to the one-fourth of an inch 
in diameter, which are surrounded by a rather wide net- work of capil- 
lary blood-vessels. Close examination of these vessels shows that they 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 261 

frequently surround individual fat-cells, in the form of single loops" 
(see Flint on Human Physiology), whence the blood that dyes the water 
that flows through the vats in the process of mincing and cleansing. 
With these facts in view, how is it i)0ssible, in the case of an animal 
that has died of a contagious disease, the fat coming in contact with 
the broken-down nitrogenous tissues, oxidized by high temperatures of 
fever, for any application of cold water to prevent tiie contamination 
consequent upon the im])regnation of the niin(!ed fat with the disease 
germs floating in the blood and water, as in the process of cleansing, 
and in which they cannot be destroye<l unless subjected to a higher 
temperature than is used in tlie manufacture of oleomargarine? 

"We lead in [lassal, "Adulteration of Foods," 1S7B, that batter may 
be adulterated with its much as from 15 to 50 per cent, of water. The 
absorption of water is readily ettected by mechanical combination in the 
churn. Now, since the fat of beef will absorb and retain within its 
particles the same amount of water as will butter, more or less, it fol- 
lows that the very means employed for the pur[)Oses of cleansing may 
convey the poisonous germs to the fat. 

There is ample proof that large quiiutities of diseased fat and tissues 
are used in the manufacture of oleomargarine, iudei)endent of the proof 
derived from patents relating to the chemicals used in the purification. 

Within the last two mouths one of the Western agents of the sta- 
tistical <li vision of the United States Department of Agriculture states 
by letter that he knew of $30,000 having been paid recently for a large 
number of hogs that had died of cholera. The fat was said to be the 
object of the purchase. 

1 have further evidence that, within the past six weeks, the fat from 
the putrid carcasses of a large number of sheep that had drowned in a 
river in the State of Missouri had been carted, in view of our corre- 
spondent, to an oleomargarine factory, doubtless to be converted into 
that "boon for the poor," j)ure oleomargarine. 

In reviewing 84 patents issued by the United States Government, up 
to March 23, 1S86, in tlie interest of butter substitutes, I find the fol- 
lowing substances used for purifying ftits that have been purchased in 
a condition unfit for human food, viz: 

Nitric acid, sugar of lead, sulphate of lime, beuzoic a'jid, butyric acid, glyceriue, 
cap.sic acid, couiiiiercial sulphuric acid, tallow, butyric ether, castor oil, caul, gastric 
juice, curcumine, chlorate of potash, peroxide of uiagnesia, nitrate of soda, dry-blood 
albunieu, saltpeter, borax, orris root, bicarbonate of soda, caparic acid, sulphite of 
soda, pepsin, lard, caustic potash, chalk, oil of sesame (or benne), tnrnip-seed oil, oil 
of sweet almonds, stomach of pigs, sheep, or calves, mustard-seed oil, bicarbona'e of 
potash, borucic acid, salicylic acid, cotton-seed oil, alum, cows' udders, sal-soda, fari- 
naceous flour, carbolic acid, slippery-elm bark, olive oil, bromo-chloralum, oil of pea- 
nuts, sugar, caustic soda. 

The following extracts from patents issued by the United States Patent 
Office will serve to show the general character of oleomargarine as manu- 
factured in the United States: 

Letters patent to J. R. Brown, December 23, LS7;5, No. I4r)840, purifying and bleach- 
ing lard, tallow, and other fatty matter. Sulphuric acid, alum, and atmospheric air. 

Letters patent to F. J. Kraft, July 21, 1874, for separating the stearine from the 
oleine of fat by heating the rendered fat in a tub preferably lined with lead to ai)out 
135° F., and subjecting it successively to the actioa of solutions of sugar of lead, 
alum, bi carbonate of potash, and nitrate of soda, and To mechanical pressure. ' 

Letters jiarent to John Hobbs, August 22, 1882, for the mauufacture of artificial 
butter by mixing cotton-seed oil, benuc oil, or mustard-seed oil, with animal olei)mar- 
garine, and emulsionizing the mixture with nnlk, cream, or other watery fluid. 

Letters patent to Nathan I. Nathan, August 22, 1882, No. 263199. Artificial butter. 
Oleomargarine and leaf lard, the latter cleaned, fused, and strained and washed in a 
solution of water, borax, and nitric acid, and then churned with milk and dissolved 
sugar and coloring matter. 



262 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Prof. W. H. Brewer, of Yale College, is represented as saying tbat 
" the idea that oleomargarine is more dangerous than butter because 
heated to only 120° is simply nonsense." There is no date to the cer- 
tificate and it may have been written ten years ago, when the life his- 
tory of bacteria was not as well understood as at the present time. 
Late experiments demonstrate that the spores of some species of bacil- 
lus are not destroyed by a temperature as high a,s 212° F., an<l to make 
sure of their destruction, substances containing them are subjected to 
230° F. for a period of thirty minutes. At a temperature of 130° F. 
some of the poison germs just begin to propagate in a lively manner. 
(Salmon.) 

Prof. J. S. Arnold, medical department. University of New York, is 
said to be the author of the statement that " oleomargarine is a blessing 
to the poor, and in every way a perfectly pure, wholesome, and palata- 
ble article of food." I am certain that no reliance can be placed upon 
the statement that oleomargarine is made of pure fat. The manufact- 
urer himself, however honest, cannot vouch for its purity. The fat is 
bought in open market, and may have passed through several hands 
before reaching his. The trader's consideration is money, not purit}'. 

As for oleomargarine being palatable, that is a question of taste; 
my experience is that the butter substitute has neither the smell nor 
the taste of butter. 

Professor Averill, of Yale College, is made to say : 

Nor has trichiufe been observed in the fat or flesh, except when embryos have been 
purposely fed to the animals before killing them for experiments. 

This the professor surely did not say, for he must be well aware of 
the history of the discovery of trichinte in swine and in the human 
body long before any experiments or investigations had been made 
relating to their propagation in living animals. There is no record 
that any one of the hundreds of human beings who have lost their 
lives bj' trichinosis had been the subject of experiment. 

P. H. Van der Weyde, M. D., editor Practical American, and pro- 
fessor of chemistry, United States Medical College, is (juoted: 

Any injniious ingredients which the cow may eat or which may linger in thosys- 
tem, as the result of any ailment or disease, are thrown out by the secretory glands, 
of which the principal are the kidneys and the milk-secreting organs. 

Had this indorsement begun as follows: '■'■ Sometimes injurious in- 
gredients, &c.," a person of ordinary intellect would be able to com- 
prehend it; but to say that any injurious ingredients which a cow may 
eat are thrown out by the kidneys or tlie miik-secreting organs is cer- 
tainly not in accordance with any treatises on modern i)hysiology. But 
it isimprobable that Professor Van der Weyde gave the indorsemen t in the 
precise language quoted. It is difficult to believe tiiat tlie above and 
many other certificates given to the i)ublic of late, in this city, represent 
correctly the views of the scientific gentlemen whose names they bear, 
indorsing oleomargarine as manufactured at the present time. 



STATEMENT OF G. P. LORD. 

Elgin, III., June 15, 1886. 

Dear Sir: From a communication just at hand I learn that the ar- 
tificial butter interests are to be presented before your committee for its 
consideration and I am invited to visit Washington and i)resent the in- 
terests of honesty in butter-making before your honorable committee. 

As it is impossible for me to visit Washington at this time, I may 



Imitation dairy products. 263 

be permitted to pi-eseut some points that should not be overlooked by 
your committee in considering' this important question. 

In considering any question att'ecting our agricultural affairs we should 
not overlook the fact that agricultural pursuits are important factors in 
American affairs ; that our financial, manufacturing, and commercial 
prosperity is dependent upou the prosperity and success of those en- 
gaged in cultivating our farms. 

I am aware that in England farmers have come to be considered as 
being of little or no account; that England would sacrifice her entire 
agricultural industry if thereiiy she could secure cheap food for lier half- 
paid and half-starved employes. 

Thanks to a kind Providence our beloved America has not yet been 
brought down to that low level where the " bloated " capitalists and 
their half-paid laborers are the only important factors that are worthy 
of the consideration of those charged with the responsibility of Gov- 
ernment. 

That the dairy industry is an important bran<;h in our, agricultural 
pursuits all will admit. 

That this department of agriculture has been greatly injured, if not 
brought to the verge of ruin, by the introduction of a counterfeit of its 
product is too well known to require any argument to prove it. 

And just here I want to call the attention of your honorable commit- 
tee to the fact that the whole business of making counterfeit butter was 
inaugurated, and has been and is being carried on under and b}' virtue 
of rights which have been granted, by the Government. 

The Patent Office has issued, as I am informed, about sixty different 
patents, and still the work goes on. 

The Government has no right to grant any person or ])ersons rights 
(patent or others) for the counterfeiting of any agricultural product. 

Congress might as well pass a law granting to certain parties the 
right to make and vend counterfeit money as to allow the Patent Office 
to grant parties the right to counterfeit butter. 

If this be true, then it follows that the Government has been a party 
(inadvertently, I admit) to this gigantic fraud. 

I am aware that parties will try to break the force of this argument 
by claiming that theirs is not a patented process. 

These parties will tell you what ingredients they use, and how they 
treat their animal fats. 

• They will probably say, at least they have so advertised, that they 
immerse their fats in clear, cold brine, &c. 

Kow, if your honorable committee will look at patent 206,568, issued 
to George H. Webster, of Chicago, October 24, 1882, you will notice 
that he claims the "hereinbefore described process of making arti- 
ficial butter, which consists in minutely dividing leaf lard, rendering 
and straining it, mixing a butter coloring matter with it, and immersing 
it in cold brine for thirty-six liours." 

John Hobbs, of Boston, obtained patent No. 280,822, July 10, 1883. 
He, too, claims the right to use the cold-brine bath in his process. 

Now, the point is this: that Government has given patentees the right 
to manufacture counterfeit butter by the (almost) indentical processes 
which these (Chicago) parties claim to use in njakiug oleomargarine, 
and there is in the very nature of things prima facie evidence that their 
product is manufactured nnder and by virtue of rights which the Gov- 
ernment has granted to those who patented these processes. 

It is possible that manufacturers of counterfeit butter pay no more re- 



264 IMITATION DAIKY PKODUCTS. 

spect to patentees' rights thau they do to the rights of dairymen, but 
they will hardly claim that there is any special virtue in so doing. 

It is interesting to note the reasons why animal fats are rendered at 
a low temperature instead of rendering them by heat, as was formerly 
done. It seems to be conceded by all tlie patentees that the rendering 
of animal fats at a high temperature imparts to such fats animal odors, 
which it is imjiossible to extract, and, as Mr. Mege says, the rendering 
of such fats at a low temperature imparts to them the taste of molten 
butter. 

All patentees (and I think all who give this subject any consideration 
■will agree with them) regard it as of the highest importance to se])arate 
the animal tissue from the animal fat, and various devices and com- 
pounds are resorted to to accomplish that object, and yet no man of 
sense will claim that all of the tissue or membrane is or can be sepa- 
rated fiom the fat by any or all of the processes yet invented. 

And at this jjoint I want to call attention to some statements that 
have been made in regard to artificial butter being healthful. In a man- 
ifesto published in tbe Inter-Ocean May 19, 1886, by five of those who 
claim to maijufacture oleomargarine, they state that physicians, chem- 
ists, and health officers have pronounced these compounds healthful. 

Now, I venture to say that there is not an intelbgent physician in the 
United States of well-known reputation who will say that uncooked ani- 
mal food is a safe article of diet. 

I do not believe any intelligent man who has given this subject any 
IH'oper attention will claim that uncooked animal tlesh is safe food. 

Those who issued that manifesto would probably say that trichinae 
and other parasites are not found in the fat, but in the tissue or mem- 
brane of the animal. This is granted ; but we must bear in mind the 
fact that the fat does not hang down from the animal as apples hang 
from the trees, but that the fat is permeated through and through with 
the tissue or membrane, and that so long as any membrane remains 
and is incorporated in the artificial product that product is a danger- 
ous class of food. And here it should be stated that we are not dealing 
with the product of any one firm, but with this whole class of food as 
found in our markets. True, when one of the best samples of one of 
the best manufacturing companies was subjected to microscopic inves- 
tigation, it contained a whole menagerie of parasites. (See Exhibit Nos. 
1 and 2.) 

Dr. George B. Harrison, a micioscopist, of Boston, procured twenty 
si)ecimens of bogus butter, and subjected them to a microscopic investi- 
tiou, and he states that in every specimen he found loathsome and dis- 
gusting objects and living parasites. 

These and other facts were brought out by the committee of the House 
on epidemic diseases, and incorporated in their Report 199, to accom- 
pany House bill 7005, submitted February 4, 1881, and in that report the 
committee saj" "that the adulteration of articles used in the every-day 
diet of vast numbers of people has grown to and is now practiced to 
such an extent as to endanger the jniblic health." 

In considering this question the public health is of first importance, 
nd is entitled to the benefit of any doubt that may be used against 
ny scientific or adulterated food. 

And here I desire to make two statements : 

(1) Butter made from milk or cream by churning is a healthful food, 
for "it is an easily-digested form of fat." 

It is one thing to get an article of food into the stomach, but quite 
another thing to remove the effects of such food from the system. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS 265 

(2) Butter made from milk or cream by churning is the finest and 
cheapest extract for flavoring food that can be obtained in tlie market. 
I am aware that people talk about rancid butter, and sometimes people 
are inclined to think that rancid butter is a dairy product. To correct 
any such impression it is only necessary to say that rancid butter is 
butter that has been kept until it has spoiled. 

And at this point I want to answer an ol)jection that has been raised 
by the manufacturers of artificial butter. They are reported to have 
stated that there were not cows enough in the United States to furnish 
the people with butter. If that were true there would be no such thing 
as rancid or spoiled butter in the market. 

When the demand equals the supply, butter will be consumed as fast 
as it is produced, and then rancid butter will disappear from our now 
overstocked markets. 

Nor should we overlook the fact that the day is passed when a dairy- 
man will make poor butter, not for the reason claimed by those engaged 
in making bogus butter— that they have compelled farmers to make 
good butter — but for the reason that the people are willing to pay a 
feir price ior good butter, and farmers, like other men, desire to obtain 
a good price for their product. 

lam aware that manufacturers of fraudulent butter have endeavored 
to divert public attention from the question at issue and to array one 
class of farmers against another by statements that if dishonest butter 
is not sustained cattle will be reduced in price " $3 per head." In an- 
swer to such wild statements it is sufficient to say that dairy farmers 
depend largely upon stock-growers for their dairy stock, and that as a 
result stock-growers have received 25 to 50 per cent, more for their cows 
than they would have realized for them had they sent them to the 
shambles in like condition. 

Then, again, the question may be asked, where do you tind these cat- 
tle and those caftle dealers for whom the bowels of sympathy of the 
fraudulent- butter men are so widelj^ extended "? 

I am not familiar with the statistics of other States, but in Illinois 
"which occupies a proud position in cattle breeding," as will be seen 
from Exhibit No. 3, one will find the greater portion of the cattle in the 
dairy district. 

Nor are our grain-growers iiulift'erent to the success of thedairvmen. 

Not less than from $200,000 to $500,000 are annually paid out in 
Elgin by our dairy farmers fttr feed that is raised outside of the dairy 
region. 

What would hay, oats, corn, or bran be worth should dairying fail 
and our dairy farmers throw all the product of their farms and all the 
feed they buy upon an already overstocked market? 

This question has two sides to it, and it is i)ossible that the recoil of 
this gun may lay all the bogus-butter makers in the ditch. 

Nor should we overlook the fact that the " labor question " is inti- 
mately connected with this subject. 

Cows cannot be milked with the most improved harvesting ma- 
chines. 

Milking is hand work, and the care of a dairy farm requires intelli- 
gence. 

No other industry gives employment to so large a number of earnest, 
intelligent men (in proportion to its product) as the dairy industry, and 
every one of this mighty host of intelligent men is watching with in- 
tense earnestness to see if Congress will wash its hands and the Gov- 
ernment cease to be a party to the continuation of this wicked fraud. 



266 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Ko honest industry can compete with legalized counterfeitiug and 
legalized fraud. 

It requires no prophetic vision to see that this country cannot exist 
half butter and the other half grease. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

G. P. LORD. 

The Chairman Senate Committee on Agriculture. 



STATEMENT OF HENRY E. ALVORD. 

Houghton Farm, 

MountainviUe, Orancje County, New York, June 7, 1886. 

Hon. Warner Miller, 

United States Senate : 

Sir: In connection with "the oleomargarine bill," about to be con- 
sidered in the Senate, permit me to ask your attention to the following 
statement. 

As senior vice-president of the ]S"ew York State Dairymen's Associ- 
ation, I feel at liberty to address the Senator from New Y^ork on this sub- 
ject, and I venture to refer to my long and active connection with the 
dairy interests of the country, my practical work in introducing the 
co-operative system of butter-making in Maine, Massachusetts, and Con- 
necticut, and my share in the dairy statistics of the tenth census, as an ex- 
cuse and jnstification for addressing the Senate committee of which you 
are chairman. 

At present I am a practical dairyman, largely interested in making 
dairy butter, in maintaining a high quality, and securing a good price. 
But I fail to see how any good can come to our dairy interests by unfair 
dealing and undue excitement in meeting a formidable competition in 
the general butter market. 

It is hardly necessary to observe that the present clamor and appar- 
ent excitement in connection with this proposed oleo legislation, and 
which now centers at Washington, is not spontaneous, but is manu- 
factured for the occasion, the result of laborious eftbrts by men who 
have personal and pecuniary interests involved. Aside from the gen- 
eral worthlessness ot i)etitions secured by organization and solicita- 
tion, many of those you have in this instance received have been signed 
as the result of the most extravagant statements and actual misrepre- 
sentation. This same extravagance and disregard or ignorance of the 
facts has characterized the statements and arguments submitted to 
Congress in support of the i^roposed anti-oleo legislation. 

The double and contradictory assertion has been made, that there are 
15,000,000 milch cows in the United States, producing 1,000,000,000 
pounds of butter and 400,000,00!) pounds of cheese, and that the num- 
ber of dairy cows is rapidity diminishing, with consequent reduced dairy 
production. 

Neither statement is correct. There have never been 13,000,000 dairy 
cows in the country, and the product of butter and cheese is little, if 
any, more than half what is claimed. (The milk of from Ave to six 
million cows is consumed as food, unmanufacrured.) In fact, the num- 
ber, quality, and value of our dairy cows are steadily increasing. 

This increase has been as rapid since the advent of butter imitations 
and substitutes as ever before. In the United States as a whole more 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 267 

butter was made and more consuiued per capita, and that of a higher 
quality, in the year 1885 than in any previous year. 

Moreover, prices have not declined materially, in spite of the oleo- 
margarine and butterine competition, substitution, and adulteration. 
I have compiled from standar<l sourcies a table of the quotations, weekly, 
in the New York market of Western creamery butter and New York 
dairy butter for the last ten years, and liud that, on comparison, no food 
product has in the last few years better held its price. During the four 
years 1876-79, inclusive, the average price of creamery butter was 30 
cents, and of New York dairy, 20.875 cents. During the four years 
1882-'85, inclusive, the same averages were 31 cents and 26.625 cents. 
These figures cannot be controverted. There never was a time when 
good butter was more in demand, at a comparatively good price, thau 
this year 1886, and this fact is known to every good butter-maker who 
knows his own market. 

During the last two years I have taken much pains to obtain the can- 
did opinion of great numbers of fair-minded progressive dairymen, and 
find they substantially agree that the only annoyance and injury, if any, 
from imitation and adulterated butter is in its very general fraudulent 
substitution and sale, in the retail trade, as genuine butter. 

Hence there is one thing, and one thing only, which the best butter- 
makers of the country tlesire, as an aid and protection in their business, 
and that is identification of all butter substitutes and imitations, this 
to be secured, if possible, all the way from manufacture to actual con- 
sumption. Practical difficulties are here encountered which have led 
many ])eople to approve the very questionable method of legii^hitionnndev 
a mere pretense of a revenue measure to secure the identification de- 
sired. Admitting that this is the easiest way of reaching the desired 
end, the amount of tax (or rate) is immaterial. Just enough to cover 
the cost of insi)ecting, identifying, and stauiping the goods is better 
than UH)re. 

Many honest and enteri)rising dairymen, including, to my own knowl- 
edge, several of the largest butter makers in the world, fail to see how 
their business cnu be possibly benefited by a direct onerous (if not i)os- 
itively prohibitory) tax upou a competing but equally legitiinate busi- 
ness. Y>t they do desire freedoui from the unfair advantage which 
dealers, and especially small dealers, are enabled to practice by fraud- 
ulent substitution and sale. 

This one point secured, identification^ and no good butter-maker has 
any reason to fear serious competition from Icnown substitutes and imi- 
tations of his pure butter. 

I find most good butter-makers agree that we can make an article at 
least fifty weeks m the year which will successfully compete on its 
merits with the best- known substitute, even although the latter be ot'- 
fered as butter. In spite of the many claims to the contrary, few good 
judges of butter fail to identify the si)urious imitations by the ordinary 
methods of examination. Many consumers are, however, poor judges, 
and their servants or purchasing agents still poorer, so that the need of 
some characteristic feature or mark, which shall at once distinguish 
pure butter from any adulteration, imitation, or substitute, is mainly in 
the interest of the consumer. 

The competition of the so-called '' bogus butters " is felt almest exclu- 
sively by butter of the lowest grades. The great bulk of butterine and its 
kindred products is as wholesome, cleaner, and in many respects better 
than the low grades of butter, of which so much reaches market. It is 
certainly true, however, that the average quality of American butter 



268 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

is fast iinproviiif^, ond if oleomargarine and butteriue spur tbe poorer 
butter-makers to greater eftbrt, better methods, and a product of higher 
grade, the inventions which so many regard as a calamity may prove 
to be blessings in disguise to the dairying and diarymen of the couutiy. 
The best butter-makers are to-day not afraid of the comi)etitiou as it 
stands. Secure identification an<l prevent frauds and consumers and 
producers alike will be safe. If a stamp-tax is the best method, one 
cent a pound, or even less, will be all sufficient. 
Very resi)ectfullv, vour obedient servant, 

HENRY E. ALVORD. 



STATEMENT OF JAMES HEWES. 

Baltimore, June 18, 1886. 
Hon. Warner Miller, 

Chairman Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry: 

My Dear Sir: In reply to a telegram this day from Mr. J. H. Loh, 
requesting me to send my testimony to you, [ can but feebly respond, 
as 1 am suffering severe nervous headache, caused by being badgered 
in the criminal court for two days in my efforts to aid the State as ex- 
pert in oleomargarine cases; and I will here state that my experience 
for eight years in these prosecutions is that we witnesses suffer more 
than the prisoners, and endure the reproach of butter friend and oleo 
foe alike, because we have a hand and voice in the prosecutions. We 
are forever being told that we should attend to our own business and 
let the State attend to theirs. 

My dear sir, herein lies the inefficiency of State laws to cope with 
this oleo evil — not a single arrest has ever been made here by the State 
officers unaided, or voluntarily, and they are incompetent to judge oleo- 
margarine. The laws would never have been enacted but for the zeal 
of a few individuals, and certainly no prosecutions would ever have 
occurred but for warrants sworn out upon my "ipse dixit" that the 
suspected article was in point of fact oleomargarine. I have thus been 
the means of causing about tifty arrests during the last four or five 
years, and have been boycotted by the retailers in consequence of my 
acts in the interest of honest trade in pure butter. But, sir, sweet as 
life is, I am wasting it rapidly, for the strain on ray sensitive nerves is 
grfat, and is telling on my constitution ; and though I once took up 
arms in defense of the lost cause when in the heyday of youth, now 
that I am a man of family, and a hap})y man, 1 cannot say '■'■dulce et de- 
corum est pro pair ia morV and mean it to apply to my decease, and I 
pray a national law that will supersede our weak efforts to correct the 
morals of the people in this regard. 

As I mentioned brietly before your committee some time since, more 
stress should be laid upon the moral aspect of this momentous question. 
I cannot exaggerate the demoralization wrought by this one agent. 
Men who years back would have been accepted as credible witnesses, 
now to shield one another do not scru])le to go ui)on the stand in court 
and prevaricate under oath, if not actually lie. Woman, lovely woman, 
is prostituted to the nefarious traffic, and innocent children are taught 
to cry out in the market-i)laces, " Here is your choice country primary 
butter," when, from the very chaiacter of theit instructors and instruc- 
tions, they know that the composition is as innocent of country and butter 
as they were once of crime. Man, woman, and child have heard the spe- 
cious arguments of oleo vendors so frequently that the fact of selling oleo 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 269 

surreptitiously rises to lieroism in their sight, an i tbej laugh to scoru 
the thought that there cau be auy harm iu resisting the encroachments 
of such an obviously unjust law by every force at their command, and 
a part of their creed is to damage any business the proprietor of which 
is engaged in bringing them to count. 

Sir, in this city they have a society organized to defend one another 
if arrested and to boycott me. Thank God, they lack the power or they 
would take the bread out of mj' moutli and the months of my wife and 
children and banish us the town, so splenetic and spiteful are they. 
You have donbtless many times heard persons, otherwise considered 
honest, say that they would " beat a railroan company out of a fare if 
they could." I have many and many a time. Weil, sir, the defects iu 
the morals there harmonize with the detective morals of the oleomarga- 
rine vendor. I will not sell oleo because I know that sooner or later, 
iu the course of any I might sell, before it reached the stomachs of man- 
kind, a fraud would be perpetrated to which I would be accessory before 
the act; and I cannot account for any other view to be entertained ex- 
cept on the grounds of obliquity of vision. 

When the tiny influence of Mege's invention commenced its work in 
this country, woidd to God that some prophet had arisen to have fore- 
casted the dire events to befall the butter world. I thought it another 
wooden nutmeg joke! If any one with human foresight liad told of 
the blows to be dealt by this hy<lra headed enemy to the dairies through- 
out the land, he would have been ridiculed. The United States Govern- 
ment, instead of granting patents then and now to the issuers of coun- 
terfeit butter, should have granted freedom to any one and everywhere 
to counterfeit everything, including money, or tiien and there the very 
law we beg for now, and which these dair;s pirates have the audacity to 
oppose, should have been enacted to throw around thefarmer that pro- 
tection which the general invitation to immigrants to till our broad 
lands has carried as a natural presumption would be afforded them. No 
l^arallel to the audacity of oleomargarine puddlers appears iu the world's 
history, makers of a counterfeit as cimniug as ever appeared, openly 
fighting for i)rotection in the manufacture and sale of the fraudulent 
article. When they read in the fair phraseology of the desired law that 
if they only manufacture the article and do not imitate butter in color, 
that no tax will be placed upon the stuff, they produce it as a confes- 
sion of guilty to the charge of knowing that none of it can be sold ex- 
cept to deceive. It would not please the eye, and the stomach would 
rebel, and every one of the unscrupulous fellows knows it. 

I know an oleo vendor who would have been an honest man but for 
the advent of oleo, and he used to taste the stutif to get customers to 
think that it wouldn't '' bite like an adder and sting like a serpent," 
until about a week's experience and the qualms of conscience combined 
to make him lose his breakfast after the fact one morning, and now he 
doesn't eat it or taste it even to induce customers to buy. The stuff is 
nauseating to the average man, and I contend cannot be wholesome. 
I every ounce was of the sweetest and cleanest the process of deodori- 
zation done by acids renders a suspicion reasonable that some free acid 
will remain imbedded in the fat. Oliemists and microfscopists can dis- 
agree in proportion to their fees, but when disinterested scientists tell 
you that field mice are full of trichina and hogs all delight iu eating 
the mice and the trichina are found iu all parts of the hog, it opens a 
wild field of speculation as to how broad an avenue oleo presents for an 
incursiou of these parasites upon the human system. Cats have trichina 



270 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

in their meat from eatings mice it is suspected. I liave seen a large tri- 
china perfectly formed in a ])iece of a cat's tonc'ue. 

Now, sir, as all the fats used in the manufacture of oleomargarine (and 
by that generic term I wish to be understood as embracing oleomar- 
garine, suine, butteriue, " bosh," and every imitation of butter) are 
pressed out at a low temperature — 108 to 110 the maximum — I contend 
that the germs of disease remain as potent of evil as they were before 
the pressing and the animal life unharuied ; thus myriads of trichina 
and miles of tapeworm are insinuated daily into unsuspecting human- 
ity, and for what? — to enrich a few and to impoverish over 7,500,000 
directly and the whole nation indirectly. 

I would like to continue this letter, but am admonished by my aching 
head that yours may ache too, reading all the scribbling directed to you 
in this fight. The subject is so serious that I conscientiously think it 
menaces thenation's solvency ; if the farmer cannot live, who is the only 
producer of consequence, we all cannot live, because indirectly we all 
live on him. Stop the issue of the farmer's currency, butter, and such 
a panic will ensue in 1887 that will dwarf into insignificance any pre- 
vious experience in our national life, if it does not lead to bloody and 
more serious consequences. 

By what right, equitable or just, do a few men establish a crooked in- 
dustry, that with less than $2,000,000 capital will deal ruin to over 
30,000,000 people, and depreciate over $1,000,000,000 worth of property 
directly *? Look to it, sir, that no further hurt shall result from this 
vilest of foreign inventions that has been sent to plague our people and 
disrupt our natural relations. I must stop, although I could find ma- 
terial in this subject with which to fill a book. 
Yours, truly, 

JAMES HEWES. 



STATEMENT OF JAMES H. LOH. 

Mr. Chairnian and gentlemen of the committee, I am a farmer, and 
reside in Pennsylvania. In the winter of 1877-'78 I went to Harrisburg^ 
and after much labor succeeded in having a bill passed by the legislature 
to prevent the sale of oleomargarine as butter. That was one of the first 
State laws in regard to this matter which was enacted. Since the law 
was passed a few cases have been tested in our State, and in all those 
cases the claim has been made that the law was unconstitutional. 

There are at present, I believe, such laws in twenty one States of the 
Union, but in one respect or another they all seem to be defective. As 
a matter of fact cases under the laws are appealed from one court to 
another, and finally are allowed to expire for the want of time, and be- 
cause of the individual expense attending their prosecution, in this way 
leaving the dairy interests of the country without proper i)rotectiou. 

There has been so much said in regard to this matter that I need 
only add that the farmers of the country are looking to tiie Senate for 
relief, and you have it in your power to frame a law upon this subject 
to aid this great portion of our peo])]e. I do not make this appeal in 
the interest of any association or corporation, but appeal to you as an 
individual farmer. Lengthy arguments have been submitted on the 
other side of the question, claiming that these artificial compounds are 
healthful. From an experience of thirty years, directly and indirectly 
engaged in the handling of pure butter, I cannot indorse any such state- 
ment. In my own town during the past winter oleomargarine first made 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 271 

its appearance aud was sold for butter. The question is, What should 
be done to protect the consumer ? I say, give us a tax, and place the 
matter under the control of the General Government. 

There have been arguments attempting to show the great loss that 
will be experienced if this law should be jjassed. All I can say is I re- 
side in the valley of the Cumberland ; our section is growing rapidly, 
and we can bu^^ milch cows there for $15 to $18 a head, and if this 
bill will so greatly affect the cattle industry, as they claim, people in 
our country would have to give their stock away. But this will not 
be the effect of it. 1 will simply say in conclusion that the farmers of 
the conntry are looking to you, gentlemen, for relief, and believe you 
will give it to them. 

STATEMENTS OF B. F. VAN VALKENBURGH. 

Hon. Warner Miller, 

Senate Chamber^ Washington. D. C. : 

Dear Sir : The arguments used by Messrs. Armour & Go. and other 
dealers in butteriue and oleomargarine butter, that the bill before the 
Senate to tax oleomargarine will, if passed, injure the stock-raising in- 
terests, have no foundation in fact, for the reason that the so-called oleo- 
margarine manufactured in the United States is mostly composed of 
neutral lard, very little oleomargarine oil entering into the compound. 
During the winter mouths, when a very large share of the goods are 
, made, only 5 to 10 per cent, is used, and during the summer season, when 
a very small quantity of the goods can be sold, from 10 to 150 per cent. 

The bill does not tax oleomargarine oil mauufiictured for export, and 
no doubt seven-eighths of the oil produced in the United States is ex- 
ported to other countries. 

It is estimated that there are 350,000 less cows in the United States, 
kept for dairy purposes, than there were five .years ago, while the in- 
crease of pojjulation would have called for an increase of not less than 
350,000 ; consequently the passage of this bill would give such an im- 
petus to the now nearly ruined dairy interests that there would be an 
immediate demand for 500,000 cows to make butter to take the place of 
the lard aud other mixtures sold for butter, and there would be a de- 
mand every year for several hundred thousand cows to supi)ly the in- 
creasing dairy interests. 

But if this bill is defeated the result will undoubtedly be to cause not 
less than 1,000,000 cows to be sold for beef within the next tive years. 
For it is a settled fact that the dairy interests of the United States can- 
not compete with the uncontrolled manufacture of lard, sesame oil, and 
other oils into fraudulent butter. 

The cattlemen of the Great West, as well as the dairymen of the East- 
ern and Middle States, cannot allow this fraudulent butter to continue 
to be sold as and Ibr butter. 

According to the oi»inion of those who have given the matter careful 
study, if the tax of 10 cents is restored and becomes law there will be a 
demand in the immediate future fur 1,000,000 cows for daii-y i)nrposes; 
if it is defeated there will be not less than 1,000,000 cows sold for beef 
within the next five years. It is for the Senators of the stock-raising 
aud dairy States to decide which will be best for the country. I ear- 
nestly hope that you will favor the bill. 
Kespectfullv, yours, 

B. F. VAN VALKENBUEGH, 
Assistant New York State Dairy Commissioner, 



272 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

ADDITIONAL STATEMENT OF B. F. VAN VALKENBURGH. 

jSTew York, Jime 21, 1886. 
Hon. Warner Miller, 

Chairman Seriate Committee on Agriculture : 

Dear Sir: Iii order to successfully enforce any State law regulating 
the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine, the article must be i)ut un- 
der the control of the Internal Revenue Department of the United States, 
for the reason that these goods are manufactured in such close imitation 
of butter and packed in butter tubs, marked and shipped as butter, and 
so marketed that it cannot be detected while in transit from one State 
into another; but if it is put under the control of the Internal Revenue 
Department it will be marked and stami)ed in such manner that when 
shipped from the West into New York or any other city it will be recog- 
nized by the State officers, and can then l)e watched and kept under 
control, but when not marked it can be shipped and distributed in but- 
ter tubs as butter in all parts of the United States without detection. 

Armour & Co., of Chicago, ship their oleomargarine and butterine in 
refrigerator cars, with their beef, to a large number of the towns and 
cities in this State, and bt^ing butter tubs, no suspicion is aroused of 
it being anything except butter, I have positive information of it hav- 
ing been shipped in this manner into Utica, and other smaller cities iu 
the western part of this State, by said tirm during the past winter, 
and I am informed that they distribute it wherever they run their re- 
frigerator cars, which is into nearly every State in the Union. 

The assertion of the manufacturers and dealers in oleomargarine that 
they are furnishing a cheap substitute for butter to the laboring classes 
is not true, for the reason that the retailer invariably sells the goods for 
butter at the ruling ])rices for good, sound, sweet dairy and creamery 
butter, he making the enormous profit of 15 to 20 cents per pound on 
his sales, while the consumer is not only defrauded by getting what he 
does not want and would not knowingly use at any price, but is paying 
10 to 15 cents per pound more than he would have to pay for oleomar- 
garine if he wanted it and bought it for what it is. 

By taxing these goods 10 cents per pound it will simply reduce the 
profit of the retailer to about what it would be on pure butter; then there 
would be no inducement for the grocer to commit a fraud on his cus- 
tomer by selling it for butter. 

The experts in the employ of the State dairy commission have pur- 
chased more than five hundred samples of these counterfeits as and for 
butter during the past eighteen months, and in not over five cases have 
they found the grocer selling it for what it was, and then only when 
the}' were suspicious that they were dealing with a State expert and 
liable to be arrested. The average i)rice paid by the experts for five hun- 
dred samples was for oleomargarine twenty to twenty-five cents, and 
for butterine twenty-five to thirty-six cents per pound; the larger share 
of the samples were butterine. During the said period oleomargarine 
sold at wholesale from eight to thirteen cents per pound, and butterine 
at sixteen to twenty cents per pound. The present ruling price of 
oleomargarine is seven to nine cents and of butterine ten cents per 
pound at wholesale. 

Respectfully, yours, 

B. F. VAN VALKENBURGH, 

Assistant Dairy Commissioner. 

The committee then adjourned. 



IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 273 



STATEMENT OF J. H. CRANE. 



[OfficB of ,J. H. Cv'Mw, wholf-yale protluce coiuiuiHsioii merclimit, 936 Louisiana ave- 
nue, south side.] 

Washington, D. C, June 22, 188G. 

])EAR Sm: Mr. Walter BroNvii, of 212 Center Market, this city, who 
addressed jonr coiiiiDirtee last Friday, requests me to send to yon the 
mime of A. A. Kennard & Co., corner of Soutli street and Exchange 
Flace, baltimore, as the parties to whom the suet of the butchers in 
the Center Market was sold four years ago, in the returned refuse 
ot which he found, in the hashed and pressed suet, pressed maffgots 
He also requests me to give you the name of Mr. P. H. Yanriper of New 
York City, as the party to whom Messrs. AYeaver & Klingly, of George- 
town, D. C., are now shipping their "oleo oil," this oil being extracted 
trom suet bought of butchers in our Center Market. 

You will remember that this information was called for by Senator 
Jones. ^ 

Yours, truly, 

TT Aiir li. '^- H. CRANE. 

Hon. Warner Miller, 

Chairman Committee Agriculture, tOc, U. S. 8. 



ANALYSES OF SAMPLES OF OLEOMARGARINE. 

U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

TT w' ,^ l^«*>/w'/5'tow, 7). 0., ./?me 22, LS86. 

Hon. Warner Miller, ' ? • 

Chairman Senate Committee on Agriculture: 
Dear Sir: Herewith I respectfully submit an analysis of the ten 
sam})les of eleomargariue, so called, received June 12, 1886, from B F 
Van Valkenburgh, assistant New York State dairy commissioner, 35(i 
Waslnn-ton street, New York (Mty, N. Y. 

SampU No. 1 is an oleomargarine. Viewed under the microscope as 
received, this sample exhibits crystals of lard. On boiling it o-ivcs off 
fumes of a very disagreeable acid odor and also that of decomposino- 
cheese (caserne), showing the presence of butter. It is unfit for human 
iood, being ma highly decomposed state. The sample is marked L, 
Aarensburg, N. Y. ' 

Sample No. 2.— This specimen is full of fungi, mycelium, and the 
spores of the same. Dark bodies, foreign to pure butter or oleomarga- 
rine, are also observed. On boiling a very sour odor is given off aiul 
also that of decomposing cheese (caseine), indicating the i)resence of 
butter, although no odor of butter was perceived. 'This sample was 
too much decayed to detect in it the crystals of beef fat. Has a slioht 
taste of butter. Is unfit for human food, being in a state of fermenta- 
tion. The sample is marked U. .^ D., June 12, 1880. Probably Richards 
and Muny's goods. 

Sample No. 3.— This sample is an oleomargarine. Viewed under the 
microscope, it exhibits crystals of lard. On boiling gives off a slin-ht 
odor of butter; also a sour and cheesy odor. Is unfit for human food, 
being highly decomposed. This sample is marked P. H. Ilimr N Y • 
made by him in N. Y. ; old goods. J. I ei , x> . i . , 

170(»7 OL 18 



274 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Sample No. 4. — Viewed under the microscope, as received, no crystals- 
of lard were observed. On boiling- a slight odor of butter is ]>erceived, 
and a sour smell of decomposed or putrid cheese (caseine). This sam- 
ple is too highly decomposed to obtain definition of crystals, and is 
unfit for human food. It is marked N. Waterbury (probably Ham- 
mond's goods), 115 Warren street. 

Sample No. 5. — This samjde is an oleomargarine. Viewed under the 
microscope, crystals of lard are observed. On boiling, a strong odor 
of decomposing caseine and a strong acid odor is given oil'. Tlie sample 
is in a state of fermentation. Is uuflr for human food. Marked, P. 
McGaun; probably McGaun's goods, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Sample No. G. — Viewed under the microscope, no crystals of lard are 
observed. On boiling, it has a sligbt odor of butter and also a strong- 
odor of decomposing cheese (caseine), showing the presence of butter. 
It is highly charged with water. This specimen is unfit for human 
food, being in a state of fermentation. Marked G. 

Sample No. 7. — This is an oleomargarine. Viewed under the micro- 
scrope as received, crystals of lard in great numbers are seen. On 
boiling, beef crystals are observed, and also dark bodies, never seen in 
pure butter or oleomargai'ine. This sample is in a highly decomposed 
state and would be unfit for human food. It is marked Millman, 
probably L. Mendell's goods, New York. 

Sample No. 8. — This sample contains butterand lard, mycelium (roots) 
of fungi, and the si)ores of same. On boiling it gives off tbe odor of 
decomposing cheese (caseine of butter). Contains dark bodies foreign 
to butter or oleomargarine. jS^o odor of butter is perceived when boil- 
ing. The sample is unfit for human food, being in a state of fermenta- 
tion. Marked O. H. Hammond, June 12, 1886. From somewhere in 
Indiana it is supi)Osed. 

Samplv No. 0. — This sample, under the microscope, viewed in the nat- 
ural state, shows crystals of lard. It is an oleomargarine. The crystals 
of lard are well defined and in great numbers. On boiling gives off the 
odor of decomposed cheese (caseine of butter). The sample is highly 
charged with a blue mold, seen by the naked eye. It is in a high state 
of fermentation and is unfit for human food. Marked A. Manufact- 
urer unknown. 

Sample No. 10.— Few crystals of lard observed in this sample. Wlien 
boiled has a slight odor of butter, also an odor of decomposing caseine, 
showing the presence of butter, Is unfit for hunum food, being in a 
state of fermentation. Marked P. H. Van Kiper, New York. 

C 



HA^'07 



